


Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

by CyanideOreos, TheLadySyk0



Series: The New Alternia [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Alien Cultural Differences, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Future, Babies, Baby, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Slow Burn, cuteness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-29 21:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 55,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7700548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyanideOreos/pseuds/CyanideOreos, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadySyk0/pseuds/TheLadySyk0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A human child is adopted and raised by a high blooded alien who attempts to insinuate himself into human politics, having been farsighted enough to see which way the wind was blowing. He intends to raise the thing as a pawn to push pro alternian ideals but he ends up actually loving his brilliant, alien son.<br/>Also because aliens do not know how to infant he gets a nanny. </p><p>Boy if this isn't the weirdest Mary Poppins AU ever written.</p><p>Illustrated by CyanideOreos! Check out her tumblr! There is also now a connected blog on tumblr "The New Alternia series" For all illustrations, updates and fun extras!</p><p>Also! if you love the illustrations in this fic (and I know you will because holy hot damn) consider commissioning the artist yourself! You can find our lovely artist at CyanideOreos on Tumblr!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. KIDS THESE DAYS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy; and this knowledge can only be derived, in the first instance, from the converted spy. Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated with the utmost liberality.”  
> ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

KIDS THESE DAYS

                                                                   
Ozainu Kalala sat down heavily.

His office was a mess.  
His knuckles were bruised. The wall, ceiling fixtures and ornamental fish tank were worse off.  
He took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Brightly colored tropical fish slowly flopped about on the floor and suffocated to death as he mastered his emotions.

He would be gutted and smoked if he had to listen to one more line about the “necessity to cooperate with extraterrestrial lussi on the basis of species continuation”.

The polish chips off of his claws as they dig into the, rare deep violet tinted wood of his desk.

Blast that damned empress, may she reign for a thousand sweeps, but he was not going to just sit and watch his species be-be … be ideologically polluted by a bunch of hopped up star monkeys, who only just fell out of the damned trees.

The ornamental inkwell makes a satisfying crunching noise against the far wall of his office.  
He lowers his hand deliberately.  
He barely tolerated midbloods as it was and had been making decent headway with the Imperial Condescension on instituting a brown and down culling policy for all non psionics in the brooding caverns.

He has been so close! The paperwork had been in the works. He’d had the backing of a majority of the highbloods and he’d been making good headway with the Cobalts. Just a few hundred sweeps and all the useless lowwbloods without any helming or battle use could have been bred right out. It would have been for the good of the species!

The other highbloods were too busy jockeying with each other for place in the, admittedly still dangerous and complicated, world of troll politics, to care about the real root of most hemospectrum issues.

Lowbloods were just too short lived. It took forever to train them to anything approaching battle competent or higher learning and the ones who did show progress would die after barely any time at all, having wasted important military time and resources. He knew that. Didn't he. He knew that for damn sure.

He allowed himself a moment- just a moment, just to remind himself, to ruminate on the brown blood boy he had taken under his wing all those sweeps ago.

The blanket of memory falls heavily over his shoulders and he allows himself to slump down in the chair.  
The surprise and joy at finding the proverbial diamond in the rough.

Watching Mosart improve, slowly at first then faster. Bit by bit, dragging himself up out of mediocrity to be nearly on par strategically with Ozainu himself. That mind. Sharp and sly, yet joyful. Always finding something new. A new angle. A new interpretation of old strategies. The conversations they’d had. Deep into the mornings it was sometimes, going over old footnotes in crackleing battle memoirs and strategy manuals from previous eras.

He almost smiles but his face quickly sours. He had loved that boy. They had been something more than moirail or kismesis. Supporting and pushing each other at the same time to greater things.

Then the blasted fool had died on him. Not of anything glorious or noble, no great combat or last stand.

Fucking dementia.

He had withered and husked away when Ozainu wasn't looking. One night having a rousing debate on mid century battle tactics over a game of chess then the next he had forgotten Ozainu’s name.  
When had the boy collected all those wrinkles, or all those grey hairs, when had his hands started to shake too badly to hold a pen or to write his music? It seemed like just when their life together was looking its best the boy had abandoned him, just like-. He cuts that thought off before it can form.

He steeples his hands and controls his breathing. Closing off his gills. When had they flared out?  
No matter.

Dying like that. Leaving him with dusty slow highbloods who never did anything brilliant or looked at things with fire in their eyes for what could be and what he would make it be.  
That kind of fire could only burn you in the end. Damn Mosart. Damn Mosart to hell for leaving him like this.

That was when he had seen the error of his ways. Lowbloods just couldn't live up to the expectations of the true troll elite. Anything that short lived should be used for what they were. Battle fodder, batteries and if peace came to shove, industrial machine enhancers and calmers of the dead. They were a needed nuisance but that didn't mean he had to like them.

By the time they actually amassed enough true consciousness to be considered real trolls it was too late and they fell over dead and the real people who struggled and cared and put in love and time and education would be left to start the damn process all over again. Waste. He loathes waste.  
Wasted time, wasted motion, wasted lov-. He cuts the thought off and exhales.

Straightening his posture he pulls up the file on the lusus aliens on his tablet. Several Hundred grubs had been shipped over and they seemed to be doing alright but what did he know about these ,so called,lusus aliens. The real information was only just starting to come in on them. The preliminary reports had classified them as capable of lussuing and troll like and the current regime, under the imperial benevolence, had fairly jumped to ship grubs over without bothering to learn anything more about these “Humans”. Well the information was just now starting to trickle in.

 

 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_Approximately 60 million years ago The planet Terra was populated by massive lizard-lusus like creatures known as “Dinosaurs” underfoot of these no6le and majestic creatures was the filthy proto-mammal hiding in the dirt. An asteroid hit the planet and while all the no6le and impressive Dinosaurs were killed, the lowly mammal survived by cowering in the dirt and eating the flesh of the fallen Dinosaurs. 34 million years after that the first primate appeared, around the size of a thum6 this laugha6ly pathetic creature was prey to all predators where it hid in the trees. Over the years primates diversified, some 6ecame larger and lost their tails, highly social creatures their 6rains started to slowly enlarge. They started to walk upright and to loose the fur on their 6odies. At last there seemed to be hope for the planet Terra with the species “Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis” They were intensely strong, had very large 6rains and lived a warrior’s life as exhi6ited by the many 6reaks on their 6ones._

_Unfortunately a slightly smaller-6rained species appeared, Homo sapiens sapiens. This species now referred to today as a “human” lived in much larger groups and were skinnier, less strong and the archaeological record shows that instead of following the footsteps of the 6etter Neanderthal, they started making useless shit like 6eads and and 6ody paint. Drawing on walls whenever they were 6ored and getting stuck in tar pits. They then moved into Neanderthal territory and instead of the Neanderthals killing them like they should the humans gave them useless things such as 6eads, teaching them how to make useless things and how to paint and then INTER6REEDING with the Neanderthals until barely 5% of superior Neanderthal DNA exists in humans today, swallowing up the superior race with promises of cooperation, trinkets, and sex._

_Since then their species has enveloped every inch of their planet. These highly social creatures form tightly-knit 6onds with MANY other humans creating complicated pale we6s with the intention of mass cooperation. They care for their own young and the young of others, their instincts to care for anything and everything so strong that they will take in the young of other animals to sustain this pathological care-need._

_Even existing in the same space long enough as a human will make them care a6out you. They may not be strong or fast, and their skin is extremely thin and prone to damage but they have incredi6le endurance and are hardy creatures being able to withstand extreme heat, extreme cold, being able to survive without food for three weeks and without water for five days._

_6e wary._

  _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

He would have to do more research but if these humans were weak to young to the point that they would raise the young of any species then that could be the way to get a foothold in on this cross species diplomacy thing.

He stroked his chin.

That could work.


	2. JUST A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “In the midst of chaos there is also opportunity”- The Art of War
> 
>  
> 
> So baby acquired.

Getting the adoption permits was wrigglers play. He’d barely had to raise one of his well manicured, elegantly sharpened claws, to send the teals heading the project scurrying to find him the necessary paperwork to sign.

Any protest that he was far too important to be taking part in such a lowly mid-blood level project was quashed with a well placed, and dare he say elegant, kick that had concussed a hapless interormenter and silenced the rest of the office, then sent them scurrying twice as fast to get him what he needed.

He’d made sure to avoid any permanent injuries to the teal that bled lest he get any blood on his boots.

That had been the easy part.

The other seadwellers had just been glad the guy who’d been gunning for the Lowblood grub culling laws, the exact opposite of what the new empress stood for, was out of their hair and doing charity work or something. Wasn't that what he was doing? Working on the alien lusus thing or looking over grubs? Whatever. At least he was out of their horns and someone else's problem now.

Let the midbloods deal with him. They had new media from Earth exploding into the population like a virus, jade bloods complaining louder and louder every perigee about rapidly expanding population numbers and a new empress to figure out.

There was regime change to deal with, Let the nutcase adopt an alien lusus, what did they care?  
The annoying part had been flight over, to the damned star monkey planet.

While he had managed to get a room to himself the other trolls onboard had raved and obsessed over earth cartoons and media to a degree that had angered then embarrassed him. Their obsession and frivolous antics had unsettled him enough that after the first week he locked himself away in his rooms only leaving to use the onboard gym and cafeteria.

He was unused to seeing trolls so wholeheartedly obsessed and enraptured by something other than war.

It made him itch and want to shout orders but he was not going to involve himself with these young idiots, and they were predominantly young. They seemed… well the word he would have used was manic, on edge maybe, but instead of tension erupting into brawls or passion as he was used to observing in anyone under 50 sweeps (*his personal idea of young), they would … squeal, and start … gushing about those blasted cartoons.

Short skirts and unnatural hair colors, a group of indigos and violets tittered past, their hair dyed bright unconscionable pink and purple, faux animal ears around their horns. If he had to hear someone say “desu desu” or “kawaii” one more time he was going to stab someone in their fake animal ears and pin them to the offender's head permanently.

Having to sequester himself away, for perigee’s, from the high pitched excitable crowds on the ship had given him ample time to do his research.

Human gru-... infants seemingly needed constant attention and stimulation to remain healthy and develop proper verbal and social skills and while he didn't doubt that he could learn in time to care for alien grubs, better than the natives even, it would take longer then he was willing to spend on this altogether too bright too crowded planet.

So after spending a good 3 nights in the hell that was parenting forums and websites detailing the growth rate of a human children, he decided that, while unpleasant and probably annoying in the short term, he would have to hire a human to come back with him and keep the little gr-.... Baby alive.

At least long enough to pupate or connect with the hive mind or whatever these … mammals did. Just someone to feed and … ughrgh change it, keep it clean until it was sentient enough for proper tutoring.

After one more day of researching the human equivalent of a lussusing contract, and watching a strangely compelling human fantasy film that involved dancing chimney sweeps, he had decided. His mind was made up.

He would hire a nanny.  
He was relieved but cautious to finally exit the ship when it docked on earth. From what the other trolls on the ship had been saying, whispering, yelling and occasionally painting in 10 foot high letters on the walls, he had expected something like a sugar filled cartoon nonsense land where all the tiny vulnerable aliens went running around papping each other indiscriminately and raising each other’s spawn.

He was immensely relieved, when he exited and there was only a strange-colored sky, some trees and a teal-blood awaiting instructions.

                                                                              

He could work with that.

The teal-blood was dressed exoticly in human business attire but bowed properly, his head up his throat bared, when he saw Ozainu exit the ship.

“Files.” He demanded, barely glancing at the teal. The teal obligingly handed him a two folders, one with adoptable children in the area that met his criteria and the other with caregivers.

He turned to look at the teal. The teal only bowed his head , curved horns barred in submission.

“Name and rank?”

“Jurrok, civil-servantterrorist.”

“Look at me.” Ozainu demanded. The Teal looked up hesitantly.

Ozainu fixed him with a harsh stare. “Tell me.” he demanded. “Do you know what anime is?”

The Teal’s brow furrowed and one of his ears twitched in confusion. “....No?....”

Ozainu released a huff of breath, relieved. “Good.”

He turned on his heels and motioned for the teal to follow him.  
“Come, we have work to do.”

The teal obligingly followed him, clipboard in hand.

The adoption agency had been wary but willing to listen.  
When he had informed them that he would be bringing back a human caretaker to help him raise the child they had relaxed somewhat.

He failed to mention that he had yet to procure the caretaker but the staff seemed willing to show him the available children with a minimum of fuss when he proved himself capable of spending 3 solid hours filling out paperwork duplicates without physically attacking anyone.

Ha.

They should see the paperwork the Condescension’s marine generals had been expected to fill out. Three hours was nothing. He’d spent more time on interesting paperwork back in his frontline days in the conquering division.

Good times.

He chose an infant at random, they were all small wrinkly, chubby, squirmy things at this point and one was barely distinguishable from the other, handing the minescule thing off to the Teal who seemed….Surprisingly ok with this? Cradling the child and loading the sleeping thing into transport container designed to hold infants. When the thing made tiny distressed noises the teal gently rocked the container until the child’s murmuring died down.

He was almost curious and if he would have been the type that cared about what a Teal thought or did with its life he would have even asked.

But he wasn’t. So he didn’t.

Next was the nanny agency. He snapped at the teal “Candidates.” the teal once again obediently handed him the file of available nannies who were willing to go off planet.

Margaret Fischer  
Anita Blanco  
Jennifer Jacobs  
Lila Montgomery  
Laura Addams  
Rosalyn Briar

He flipped through their bios but he could only spend so much time pretending he cared about a human’s personal history and whether or not they liked to bake.

The first human had far too much shaggy brown hair that hung over her shoulders in snarled locks that obscured her face.

“Heyyyyyy….” She greeted in a sing-song voice, her head swaying and her long beaded earrings jangling. “What’s up alien dude?.....”

She then patted him on the arm completely without his permission.

No.

 

The second human was far too old. Her little nut-brown face wrinkled and smiling kindly behind large thick glasses. Far too small, shrunken, just like-

nooooooooooo.

He had to excuse himself and stood staring blankly at the fascinatingly dull wallpaper that lined the hallway while he very carefully did not … just … did not.

The teal pretended not to notice and he was grateful for that.

He sat opposite of the third human. “So what are your main strategies in caring for and assuring an infant of your species develops a healthy cardiovascular system and decent social skills?”

The human smiled, showing off large thick and blunt white teeth. Her hair was tied into two pigtails on either side of her head and the way she stared wide-eyed made the commander slightly uncomfortable, like staring into the glassy eyes of a dead fish. She pulled something out from under the table-

Oh dear.

The felt abomination wiggled it’s glassy googly eyes at him and flailed it’s little arms “HI!” the human threw her voice so it sounded like it came from the thing on her hand “I’M POLLY THE PUPPET! LETS GO CLEAN OUR ROOOOMS!”

Ozainu’s pupils were slits and his gills were pressed against the side of his head in horror. Good grief how the hell had she found out about Subjuggalator voice throwing. That was a very deadly mental torture and deception technique, why the creepy little human would show him this when he had asked about child rearing he would never know.

The teal, not having Ozainu’s rock hard self control, shrieked and threw his clipboard at it. The pigtailed human had to be escorted out very quickly after that.

Ozainu looked on as the teal gathered the papers that had flung into the air when he had flung the clipboard. “um...Sorry I’ll just…” the teal fled the room to have hysterics in the hallway.

Ozainu very carefully did not comment.

The next human had a Hello Kitty necklace and and wore an anime themed shirt, her hair dyed a bright purple-pink.

No.

The human after that had a loud and squeaky laugh and no concept of the respect due to someone of his rank. He had been willing to hear her out at least, perhaps she could be trained in proper manners when they were off planet, but then she had tried to show him pictures of cats on her cell phone. Flashes of giggling trolls with fake ears pinned in their hair assaulted him.

NO.

He paced outside of the hallway. Why the hell was it SO blasted hard to find a decent human!? One who had personal boundaries.He wasn’t asking for much. Just a non-insane human that did what it was told and didn’t try to touch him!

The teal picked at his claws nervously and Ozainu deliberately did not look at the very tempting breakable furniture that the humans had supplied the interview room with.  
A fish tank bubbled quietly in the corner and posters of humans and their young mocked him from where they sat on the wall.

He sat down in a chair and rubbed his eyes, watching the colorful fish swim in circles, a gaudy plastic tiki in bright heretical colors sat in the middle of the tank.

“...sir?” The teal ventured.

Ozainu growled deep in the back of his throat. “What. Now.” It wasn't a question.

The teal bowed in submission, his ears folded back. “The last candidate is waiting to be interviewed.”

Ozainu nodded then caught the teal’s arm before he could exit to bring the candidate in. He looked properly into the teals eyes and he swore he could see the teal go dead yellow. His grip was firm and while it might leave light bruises later he has not used his claws so the threat was present but not immediate.

The teal stayed very still.

“I will trust your judgment on this, so if you fail to judge properly I will be disappointed.”  
His grip tightened just a hair.

“I will be procuring a caretaker for the infant. Today. If we have to stay up interviewing these pathetic apes, till the morning, to get one. If you are unable to find proper candidates after this one I will be very ... frustrated.” Ozainu’s finns weren't flared out all the way but they were threatening to. The fins along the edge of his jaw flicking in annoyed little twitches.

“ I have yet to add ,anyone on this planet, to my collection of people who can personally thank me for their eyepatches, but I am willing to add you to that list if I feel it is needed to motivate you, to get me results.”

Ozainu’s face was calm.

That, more than anything else he had said, told the poor civil servant that he was dangerously close to snapping. Trolls of Ozainu’s rank were infamous for having entire factions slaughtered because of lesser annoyances then what he had been put through in the past 2 hours. Just because it was illegal to just go about culling people left and right didn't mean that he wouldn't maim someone to get a point across.

Jurrok suppressed a whimper and looked down at his mussed papers.

Rosalyn Briar

God he hopes she doesn't have pink hair.

The door opened and the room was swathed in gentle yellow light. The dust motes in the air illuminated golden as they swirled in the air.

A thin figure stood in the doorway. “Am I…” a timid voice asked “...Am I in the right room?”

If she had been a troll Ozainu might have described her as attractive, in a pale, small boned way.

She stood, silhouetted in the doorway, in a cream-colored blouse and a long brown pencil skirt. Her hands were clutched together nervously.

Her eyes flicked up and for a brief moment and alien violet met human amber.

She seemed startled, like a deer in headlights.  
As if she had mentally prepared herself for the strange and exotic but had still been surprised “...I’m sorry...to disturb you...I must... do I have the wrong room?”

A tiny root of curiosity nudged its way through the rock hard annoyance that had been building his his mind . He motioned towards the chair across from him. “Sit.”

She nodded and stepped into the room. Her sensible black shoes made no noise on the linoleum floor. She smoothed short hair behind an ear in a nervous gesture and small dainty pearl earrings flashed softly in the florescent light as she sat down, crossing her ankles and folding her hands in her lap demurely.

                                                                       

Ozainu was already predisposed to liking her more than anyone else he had interviewed that day. The teal troll picking up on that, visibly relaxed, keeping Ozainu in the corner of his eye as he explained and made introductions.

Hmmm if she had been a troll he would have thought of her as someone who knew their place properly in the hemospectrum. Body language, dress and her quiet deferential way of talking would have pegged her as a mid-blood used to dealing with seadwellers. From what he’d seen of humans so far he was willing to sit in on just one more interview for tonight.

He nodded at the teal who swallowed and started to conduct the interview, adjusting the sleeves of his suit and settling into the chair to the side of the table between the human.

“Hello human. You have been summoned here today as a potential candidate for a temporary lusus contract to raise a human child on Alternia. A lususing contract as defined by the care and maintenance for the child in which your employer, has obtained.Temporary as it will not be permanent arrangement. As it will not be a permanent arrangement you will-”

 

ClickClickClickClick- pause ClickClickClickClick- pause.

Both teal and amber eyes darted to the table where Ozainu was tapping his fingers.

The sound was coming from the neatly polished and delicately filed, 2 inch long claws that he had begun tapping on the table in the universally recognizable morse code pattern for ”I am losing my patience and if you don't hurry it up, I will begin tapping these on your bare eye spheres”.

The teal eyed Ozainu’s claws and coughed, loosening the collar of his dress shirt uncomfortably, edging just a hair away from the tapping fingers.

“Are you prepared for this?”

The human nodded. “Yes. I am.”

The teal shuffled his papers and continued. “Describe how one takes care of an infant and how you show expertise in these necessary areas.”

The human nodded. “Infants are very delicate, at the earliest stages of life all they really do is eat, sleep and defecate. They then begin to experiment with the movement of their arms and legs, looking around and putting things in their mouth. They will begin to learn the basic sounds of language at this point, copying the sounds that they hear around them. They will babble, make nonsense noises at first but these will soon turn to words. They will try to move themselves, crawling or rolling or even scooting around on their butts until they stand up and take their first wobbling steps….”

There was a ghost of a smile on her lips.

“They need a caretaker to teach them basic language skills, they will copy parental figures to teach themselves how to speak. They need to be taught everything. How to read, how to walk, how to use utensils to eat their food, how to not ingest poisonous substances as they will put anything into their mouths out of curiosity.”

“...Everything a caretaker does during this time will have a long-lasting effect on their development. How quickly they learn language, their socialization skills, how far they excell in school…”

“Everything.” She says almost in a whisper. “A tiny little life that depends on you for everything….”

The Bigger troll with barbed horns glanced from her to the smaller troll with the question mark shaped ones.

He hadn't said anything other than “sit” since she had arrived, but she had no doubt that he was absolutely in control.

He spoke.

His voice was deep and elegant. The accent was Alternian but while the trolls she had heard on tv had sounded screechy making chirpy noises and clicking and mostly seemed excited, about animated television. He sounded very deliberate and even.

“Do you believe that you could successfully impart these primary skills to an infant? I am not a man to waste time Miss.Rosalyn. Once the infant is old enough for proper schoolfeeding I would take up most of his education myself, but he must be ready to learn. Can you prepare him for that? Are you willing to dedicate a sweep or more of your lifespan, on an alien world, towards preparing this child for what will be undoubtedly an extremely important education as an ambassador, crucial for the unification of our species?”

She forced herself to look him straight in the eyes, her voice surprisingly even when she replied “Yes.”

Violet studied amber once again.

The sudden movement of Ozainu standing up startled the teal troll more than it did Rosalyn.

He unfolded like an elegant barbed lawnchair and walked deliberately around the table.

                                        

He stuck out his hand in a slightly awkward manner. “I believe the custom here is to shake hands in situations of this nature.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw the teal troll give a tiny nod towards the larger one.

She was hesitant, but placed her hand in his. His large chilly hand engulfed her tiny warm one. His grip was surprisingly gentle and the teal looked on with raised eyebrows.  
She smiled, a hesitant quirk of her pale lips.

“...I do believe we have a deal sir.”

Her hand was shaken briskly, from side to side. Over his shoulder the teal troll tried not to smirk.

“Very well. The child is sleeping in the other room.” He gestured over his shoulder. “Jurrok go get the infant. I will go over the details with Miss.Rosalyn.”

Jukilo Jurrok scurried out of the room and gathered up the infant’s carry basket.  
The child sleepily waved a tiny hand in his general direction.

He paused for a moment letting the infant hold a finger as he listened to the quiet conversation drift in from the interview room.

“We will leave on the departing flight in three nights. You are capable of starting tonight?”

It was phrased like a question but the undertone of a command was present.

Jukilo gently wiggled his finger in the baby’s grip.

This highblood seemed polite enough but then again they always did right until they ripped someone’s head off. Ozainu was actually very restrained for someone of his color. Jukilo wondered if it was a self imposed control or if he just had a very dedicated moirail. The woman’s reply when it came was quiet but definite.

“Yes… um I can start tonight if you need me to.”

“ Good. You will stay with me and the child for the next 3 days at the hotel provided by the embassy and I will supply the necessary currency to purchase all you will need to care for him and yourself for the next sweep and a half. All purchases will be driven to and loaded onto the departing vessel under my name and will travel with us back to Alternia. Is this understood?”

A slight pause. “Um yes. I think so … just … how long is a sweep exactly? I’ve heard it's equivalent to several years but I never got an exact … uhm … ” Her voice petered off.

“From what I have read on the subject a single one of our solar sweeps is equivalent to 2.16 of your years. You will also need to purchase enough food, clothing, educational supplies etcetera for that length of time for yourself as well as the child.”

“But fresh food surely….”

“I am aware of human dietary needs and restrictions. Simply purchase enough supplementary minerals and vitamins until a greenhouse can be built that you can dedicate to the growing of earth vegetation for the fruit and vegetable portions of your diet. Meat, such as the flesh of hoof, fish and featherbeasts are similar enough on alternia that you will not be required to bring live animals with you. I would suggest stocking up on non perishables. Shipping earth commodities such as sweets, chips or liquors is expensive and I do not want to deal with multiple shipments if it can be helped.”

Jukilo noted the pause.

“I don’t drink alcohol it's uhm not something I was allo- … it's not a taste I ever acquired.”

“Good. I do not tolerate people working while under the influence of soporific substances. ”

“That uhm ... that covers it, I think. I should … I’ll be able to manage ... that.”

“Good.”

Jukilo thought this would be a good point and stepped into the room quietly with the baby in it’s basket under one arm.

“Here is the child.” he gingerly handed the basket to the woman.

She looked in at the sleepy infant and her eyes softened. Jukilo was used to the way humans acted around their young but Ozainu was not and looked on fascinated as the young woman proceeded to make soft bird like noises over the wrinkled little thing. Her entire body language had changed and from sweeps of studying body language in others he noted that she had placed herself unconsciously between the two trolls and the infant.

Good. She was already bonding or whatever it was mammals did with their young.

He was startled slightly, though his face stayed impassive, when she looked up suddenly and asked a question.

“I don’t think you said what you named her… him? Is ...it a boy or a girl?”

Ozainu quirked an eyebrow. “You can tell the sex of your species at this stage?”  
Rosalyn looked a little baffled. “You can't?”

They both stared at each other confusion apparent in both parties but neither knowing quite what to say first.

Jukilo stepped in. He had dealt with this confusing bit of human nonsense early on.  
“Troll’s start out as grubs at the first stage of life, and until pupation the sex of the grub is irrelevant.” looking over to Ozainu he continued. “Human’s are sexualy dimorphic and their sex is almost always visible from the moment they are … uh.. Born.”

Ozainu quirked an eyebrow. “Interesting.” he said with the fascinated tone of a person who while eating a salad was told that 90% of all lettuce contained earwigs that were impossible to wash off.

Rosalyn lifted the baby out of the carrier and cradled the infant properly in one arm. “Do you mind if I check?”

Ozainu waved a hand dismissively. “No, go ahead. By all means.”

A few complicated, and for Ozainu educational, moments later and the baby was popped back into the carrier. Rosalyn gently smoothed his clothes back into place and let the little boy hold a finger.

“Well that’s settled, but what did you want to name him?”

Ozainu stroked his chin. For a moment the name Mosart flashed in his mind but he quashed the urge quickly. “Mowgli Romulu should suffice.” He said finally.

Jukilo nodded happily. “A fine name”. Properly numbered too.” He smiled at Rosalyn revealing two neat rows of very sharp teeth. “It means “raised by woofbeasts” in ancient Alternian.”

Rosalyn looked a little surprised but other then that made no comment. Ozainu looked from her to Mowgli and then gestured towards the door. “Jurrok go with Miss.Rosalyn and collect her things. We need to transport them to the hotel and get them labeled for shipping. I will return to the hotel. I expect you to be there-”  
Someone knocked at the door.

 

All three adults looked up almost in unison. The baby burbled and looked at the ceiling.

Rosalyn looked back at the two trolls. Neither of them seemed about to get up so she walked over and opened the door herself.  
Ozainu stayed seated at the table, from his perspective he saw the shock run through her spine, stiffening it like a board.

“Hello Rosalyn. I’m sure you’ve had your selfish bit of fun here today, but it’s time to go home. No more playing at being a babysitter. You’re not twelve anymore, It’s time you stopped wasting these … people’s time, grew up and came home.”


	3. IN WHICH A PARENT PROVES HE IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok heads up Rosalyn's father is really emotionaly/verbally abusive so watch out if thats a thing.

 

 

_“Sometimes I really think people ought to have to pass a proper exam before they're allowed to be parents. Not just the practical, I mean.”_

_― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time_

 

Ozainu saw the fear in her posture as she took a step back, yet again placing herself between the adult presence and the infant. Good.

 

“Dad.” her voice was thin and hard.

 

The man that stepped into the room was only a few inches taller than Rosalyn herself, barely bringing him up to, the teal troll, Jukilo’s shoulder. He was neatly dressed in a suit that while pressed and unrumpled gave the impression that it had been worn for a long time. He had mousy brown hair a few shades lighter than Rosalyn’s that was swept back from his forehead to distract from his receding hairline and small oval shaped glasses. 

His overall demeanor was that of a slightly put upon professor or possibly an accountant of some kind, but from the way Rosalyn had flinched at his voice, he might as well have walked in and slapped her.

 

The man at the door eyed Jukilo warily but his eyes skimmed over Ozainu.

He focused back on Rosalyn. “You’ve already put me through enough trouble tracking you down. Do you have any idea how worried I was when you disappeared?”

 

Rosalyn seemed to withdraw into herself her shoulders hunching her eyes doing their best to shine her shoes to a mirror glow. She had taken a step back so that her back was to the table.

 

“You can't keep doing this to me honey. I can't lose you again. You tried with college I understand that but you just couldn't make it. What made you think you could be a full time nanny for an alien of all things?” He paused taking a small step forward his hands out, giving her a patient look, all genuine concern and parental worry. Really.

 

“Dad … I. You know I dropped out of college because of mom. You said money was tight enough for my tuition already and that with her in the state she was in … you said …  I-I mean I had to take care of her. You said-”

 

Her father cut her off.

 

“You were having trouble long before your mother became ill. Don't try to lie to me. I know you were lying about your grades and  I know you were out partying. God knows what you were doing with boys, probably drinking and-”

”I never did!” Rosalyn rallied a bit. “I never! I stayed in every night studying.You called me so many times! When was I supposed to have gone out to party?!”

 

“You ungrateful child. I pay out of my own pocket for you to go off to that two bit school to do who knows what, with those disgusting theater perverts, that you chose to spend your time with, and the second you’re asked to take some responsibility for once in your life you throw my generosity back in my face. Not only that but the second your poor mother dies you raid her jewelry box for drug money or to pay off a skeezy boyfriend and-”

 

Rosalyn flushed “But she left it to me! She said she did I was at the reading of the will wi-”

 

“Do NOT interrupt me, or presume to tell me, who stayed up with your poor mother while she was sick and dying to draft that damned Will! I know exactly what was in it you ungrateful brat. You think you can just steal from her memory like that.” He seemed to swell with indignant anger.

 

”She died because of your neglect.”

 

Rosalyn blanched.

The verbal slap echoed through the room.

 

She rubbed her hands together her gaze darting around the room landing on Jukilo. Jukilo looked back and nodded, stepping fluidly between the two humans.

 

He held his hands up in a placating gesture. “Sir. This **is** a private meeting that you interrupted. You are being belligerent and disrespectful to those in the room and therefore I must ask that you leave immediately or-”

 

The change in Rosalyn’s father was like night and day.

He pulled back and straightened. His face smoothed. He seemed to remember that  there were others present, paying close attention to what he said. “Do you know that this girl- my daughter is a thief?”

 

His head tilted to the side, his glasses flashed in the light.

 

Jukilo blinked at the non-sequitur.

 

His eyes were calculating. “No of course it wouldn't have come up.” He gave a theatrical sigh , “Rosalyn dropped out of college and came back to live with her mother and I, while her mother was sick and as it turned out, Dying.”

 

His eyes narrowed and he glared briefly at Rosalyn.

 

“Her mother passed away last week. Before we could even give my wife of 26 years a proper funeral, Rosalyn steals my wife, her mother’s, jewelry box packs a bag and to add insult to injury, steals my car to go off and slut it up with who knows what kind of disreputable men when she should have been home helping me, in my time of grief, with the funeral arrangements.”

 

His lip quivered in disgust.

 

“She’s always been like that. Even as a child. Tomboyish and ungrateful. She never respected anyone enough to act as a young lady should.Always thinking only of herself and never about how her actions reflected on her parents.”

 

Rosalyn looked close to tears. She had taken Mowgli out of the carrier at some point in her father's tirade and was cradling him to her thin chest like a shield. Like he was her only protection. Like he was her lifeline and if he was cut away she might fall down to the floor a broken puppet, without strings.

 

Her father’s attention was back to her now. He took a step forward hand reaching for her arm.  “Put the child down Rosalyn. We are going-”

 

“I do believe you are mistaken on several points.”

 

The voice startled Rosalyn’s father. He hadn't noticed the other troll in the room. He had only seen the one with the curly question mark horns that shuffled away from him like an awkward teen unused to dealing with humans who spoke so harshly to their offspring.

 

Ozaniu had been quiet throughout the interaction observing both parties, paying special attention not just to what was said but to both Rosalyn and her father’s body language as well as to the tones of their voices.

 

He might be from another planet but some red flags were universal.  

 

Ozainu stood up and everyone in the room was suddenly reminded that he was a good foot taller than the 7 foot tall jukilo. Jukilo was standing awkwardly hunched, or at least as hunched as a 7 foot tall horned alien can hunch, clearly unsure of what to say when a human started spouting off at their offspring like this. He looked almost relieved that Ozainu was back in control.

 

The sheer size of the troll that had seemingly sprung up out of nowhere was unnerving to the humans. He filled the room in a way that Jukilo did not. His presence pressed down on the room.

 

Some of the air seemed to leave Rosalyns father. He retracted his hand and Rosalyn looked up at Ozainu.

 

He glanced down at her and their eyes met for a brief moment.

 

He looked back to her father. He tipped his head back fractionally and his horns shon dully in the light, the downwards facing barbs were sharpened to lethal points.

 

He took a small step forward but it brought him to within a foot of Rosalyn’s father who had to crane his head up so far back to keep his eyes on the troll that his neck made an audible pop.

 

“Let me make this very clear. I do not care what the young lady you presume to call your offspring has done in the past. I do not care what you tell me she owes you. I do not care what she has taken from a dead woman who could not possibly care what happened to her baubles after she died.”

 

Ozainu’s eyes already slightly squinted in the uncomfortable fluorescent light narrowed further.

 

“What I do care about is that I have come to your planet to adopt one of your species for the good of peace and .. urhg unification- ”

 

He grimaced at the word but continued, ”What I do care about .. Sir..”

This word was said with the inflection of cur, “Is that I have spent what feels like perigees finding a suitable caretaker for my adopted grub and I will not-” he gently gripped Rosalyns father around the neck “- let some hopped up mammalian genetic accident that connects you to Miss.Rosalyn-” Rosalyn’s father’s shoes scraped the floor, ”-that you seem to think excuses your pathetic, antagonistic, male posturing, behavior towards her-” Her father was now at eye level with Ozainu, “-get in the way of me returning home in a timely manner with my child and its nanny.”

 

The screaming had died down to a thin whimpering.

 

He pulled the man close to his face and observed remotely that humans could turn some fascinating colors when deprived of oxygen.

 

“Am I clear?” he held one needle-sharp talon in front of one of his terrified eyes. “Or perhaps you will need a more...physical reminder?”

 

Rosalyn’s father scrabbled at the hand cutting off his airway uselessly and Ozainu’s lip curled in disgust. He had had a long day and after all he did have diplomatic immunity.

 

He began to lift his other hand in a manner that Jukilo noted with alarm would stop Rosalyns father from fighting back, talons threatening to give the man a face bereft of an eye.

 

A soft voice cut through the dying whimpering.

 

“Excuse me.” Rosalyn said softly. Her eyes were dark with fear and grief.

 

Ozainu Paused.

 

His claws inches away from her fathers, by now purple, face.

 

“I know that this man has disrespected you, and while he is far too conceited to apologize, allow me to apologize in his stead.”

 

Ozainu quirked an eyebrow at her. He lowered the hand not currently being used to asphyxiate her father.

 

He seemed willing to hear her out at least.

 

Her hands were crossed defensively over the baby’s back, her head bowed. “Believe me when I say that there was a time that I wanted nothing more than to see done to him what you are threatening to do to him right now.”

 

Her eyes glazed over slightly watching the shuddering man held in the trolls grip. She looked at him the same way someone would look at shit on their shoes.

 

“But if you do so…” she continued. “You will go back to Alternia, diplomatic immunity assures that, but your son will be left here.”

 

Ozainu let her father’s feet brush the floor but did not let go. He seemed to be waiting for her to say something else.

 

She looked hard into his eyes. “And I will be left here as well.” the implied ‘with him’ sat heavy in the air.

 

“So I implore you.” Her muscles went tense, eyes steely. She had been denied hope far too often. Not this time.

 

“Don’t.”

 

Ozainu weighed her look. He looked back to her father.

 

He let go and the man collapsed into a heap on the floor.

 

Swiftly Jukilo knelt down two fingers on a very bruised neck searching for a pulse.

 

He didn't look like he was breathing and his neck was ringed with splotchy dark bruises in the shape of huge fingers.

 

Rosalyn closed her eyes and held her breath cradling mowgli to her chest her face buried in his soft baby hair. The infant made a fussy noise at being held so tightly so she loosened her grip.

She peeked her eyes open. Jukilo was giving her a thumbs up his fingers on her father’s still beating pulse.

 

She exhaled and all of the tension in her body released in one go.

 

She shakily put Mowgli back into the carrier. The baby, who had somehow stayed silent through all of this, began to wail softly. She gently rocked the carrier back and forth her hands only trembling slightly.

 

Jukilo picked her father up like he was made of straw and neatly propped him in one of the chairs in a corner.

 

“I believe that the best course of action, that is to say the action that would be the best for this situation, would be for us to go about our business and leave your parent for the proper authorities to deal with at their convenience.”

 

Ozainu looked at Rosalyn. “Let us go to the hotel.”

 

He waved a hand absently, ”Jurrok.”

 

The teal snapped to attention. “I still expect you to pick up her things and assist her in purchasing the supplies necessary for the return voyage. Is that understood?”

 

Rosalyn blinked. She blinked again. “O-oh … of course.”

 

Jukilo quickly escorted them out of the building and drove them in silence to the hotel.

 

After the day’s dramatics the seadweller had demanded that he take the human to gather her things then had disappeared into his hotel room and given strict instructions not to be disturbed for another 4 consecutive hours.

After the display earlier Jukilo certainly wasn’t going to disobey.

 

The setting sun turned the sky a bright surgical appliance pink that Jukilo felt wasn't nearly dramatic enough for what had occurred. Earth. Even the sunsets tried to be friendly.

 

His claws clicked against the steering wheel of the human transport pod nervously. The huma- um Miss Rosalyn, was sitting quietly in the passenger’s seat, somberly looking out the window, flashes of light reflecting in her amber eyes.

 

Jukilo swallowed and voiced his query. “As we are to collect your belongings and as one usually stores said belongings in one’s dwelling…”

 

Rosalyn turned to look at him impassively, her wide eyes betraying no emotion as Jukilo struggled to look her directly in the eye.

 

“..I will need to um...Be informed of the location of your current place of residence.”

 

She turned away from him, light streaking across her face from where it shown through the car window, shadows darting across her eyes.

 

He wasn’t sure she had heard him and he was about to voice his query again when she spoke.

 

“Turn left here.” she spoke quietly but surely.

 

He obeyed.

 

Ten minutes later of following the human’s instructions and she had led him back to the nanny agency. He pulled into the parking lot, a question on his mind that he didn’t know how to voice.

 

“...I don’t...I don’t understand…” He struggled to find words.

 

Rosalyn quietly undid her seatbelt and stepped out of the car. She smoothed down her skirt and ran a hand through her hair, tugging the wrinkles out of her blouse and walking into the parking lot.

 

Jukilo trailed behind.

 

“Miss Rosalyn I was instructed to gather your things at your dwelling as there are no dwelling here I must object as to-”

 

Rosalyn clicked a button on her key ring and a car beeped to life. She opened the trunk and retrieved two sleek black suitcases.

 

From where Jukilo stood he couldn’t help but notice the blankets set in the back seat of the car, the pillow.

 

Oh.

 

Jukilo looked to the human. “...You’ve been…”

 

“You know…” Rosalyn remarked, her voice steely under a thin veneer of conversationalism. “I’ve noticed that your species think that humans are some sort of godsend. That our natural instinct to ‘CARE’-” she spit the last word out venomously. “Is some magical fix-all to your problems.”

 

She looked him dead in the eyes. “But heaven knows that just because someone can BREED doesn’t mean that they’re a good person.”

 

“That just because they get someone pregnant does NOT mean that they should be allowed to be anywhere near a child!”

 

Jukilo tried not to let the pang of non-romantic pity he felt show on his face, he swallowed hard, his ears folding back. “If ever I held such a notion…” His eyes were cast downwards “I was disabused of it today.”

 

Rosalyn looked at him fiercely and she's so much like-

 

She searched his eyes. “I did what I had to.” It was spoken like a prayer.

 

Human amber met Alien teal.

Jukilo struggled to speak past the lump in his throat. “...I understand that.”

 

She nodded and let out the breath she didn’t even know she had been holding. “...good…”

 

Fear filled her eyes “And I hope you understand that-”

 

Jukilo shook his head. “He doesn’t need to know.”

 

Her eyes flicked over him, studying him, trying to discern if he was lying to her.

 

“Thank you.” She whispered and something in the air between them unknotted.

 

When she motioned to pick up her bags Jukilo waved a hand to stop her and picked them up himself. He carried them to the car, Rosalyn following silently behind him. He loaded her meager belongings into the trunk and once again got into the driver’s seat, Rosalyn returned to her seat and buckled her seat belt.

 

Jukilo’s phone, sitting on the dashboard of the car, buzzed to life. Rosalyn saw the phone light up alerting a text from-

 

The picture on the screen was of Jukilo, that much she recognized, though happier than she had ever seen him, in the few hours she had known him, he was smiling shyly as a very beautiful, very human woman kissed his cheek, her long curly black hair like a halo as the sun shone around them.

 

Jukilo turned to Rosalyn, teal dusting across the bridge of his nose.

 

She had seen.

 

Rosalyn didn’t mean to stare she really didn’t but- “..You?...” she whispered.

 

Jukilo swallowed and looked back at Rosalyn. “I have no illusions on how interspecies relationships are viewed as of now, what it would mean if anyone of my species were to-”

 

Rosalyn shook her head. “I won’t...I won’t say a thing…”

 

Jukilo let out a shuddering breath “...thank you…”

 

Rosalyn nodded shakily and silence fell over the pair.

 

Jukilo gripped the steering wheel and glanced over to the human beside him, not sure how to breach the topic at hand.

 

“You have been through a traumatic event.” he stated as clinically as he could even as his heart seemed to sink through his chest to the pit of his stomach.

 

Rosalyn looked at him curiously.

 

“It would be improper as a troll.” He explained “To offer...to offer comfort at this moment. Though I realize that in times such as these humans will often seek out other humans  to administer said comfort.”

 

His eyes darted to her nervously. “...I have...I have humans you could speak to, kind ones, one who might understand what you are experiencing as they are going through something very similar, and others who are just…”

 

He shrugged. “...just kind.”

 

Rosalyn looked to hands folded in her lap. Mowgli gurgled in the back seat and cooed.

Jukilo took a card from his pocket emblazoned with his contact information. “Director of grub distribution.” the card read followed by his home and cell numbers.

 

“They would be more than willing to speak with you on any matters that would be of concern to you.”

 

Rosalyn’s eyes shone with unshed tears, gripping the card with both hands, a small upwards quirk to her lips.

 

“Thank you.”

 

Jukilo nodded and tentatively gave her his own small smile in return.

 

The light of a single streetlamp shone around them, haloing the car in gentle yellow light. They sat quietly together for long moment the whisper-quiet stillness of the night around them.

 

And here two people understood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
>  Here is a link to an approximate height chart between these guys!
> 
> https://68.media.tumblr.com/957e2005f40ed483d419c925d6330f9c/tumblr_ovojlzo6eX1wa4ctco1_1280.jpg


	4. Of Shoes and Ships and Anime Facts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Babies man who knows.  
> Julio gets wasted on slushies and Ozainu continues to not really get humans.
> 
> Also introducing the weeb trolls.
> 
> I love the weeb trolls.

 

As mentally exhausting as the day had been they still had to go and get the supplies Rosalyn would need, for the next three or more years that she would need, while off raising Mowgli on Alternia.

 

So to the mall they went.

 

The mall normally quiet at this time of night was oddly busy. A large number of garishly dressed trolls were milling around excitedly chattering to each other in Alternian, the occasional broken english phrase or japanese word caught floundering in the tide.

 

Rosalyn was stopped in the grocery and asked to pose for a selfie with a rather chipper troll wearing a cat eared hat and covered in adventure time buttons.

 

The troll had then attempted to fist bump Jukilo and ran off yelling “Mathematical!” in heavily accented english.

Jukilo had been startled and muttered something about kids these days provoking Rosayn to ask him how old he actually was. He gave her the number in sweeps and after she did some quick mental math to convert it to years she looked at him a bit shocked.

 

“You're forty three years old?” she said surprised.

 

Jukilo sighed.

 

“Trolls age at different rates depending on where they fall on the hemospectrum. Their place on the hemospectrum dictating their aging rate after pupation. I am in the middle of the hemospectrum a teal, and therefore age roughly twice as slowly as a human.”

 

Rosalyn looked a little curiously at him. “So when you were…” she paused to convert to sweeps in her head, “Six sweeps old you were about 8 in human-”

 

Jukilo shook his head.

 

“No as I stated before, when I stated that pupation marked the point where aging begins to differ in trolls along the hemospectrum. I aged at the same rate as any other troll until I reached .. what you would call puberty. That is sexual maturation. After this point I began to age regularly for a teal of my cast.”

 

Rosalyn nodded and looked over at an excited chubby troll, wearing an elegantly tailored japanese school uniform, take a selfie with the bored looking human girl who ran the slushie booth. She looked bemusedly at the scene until a thought struck her.

 

“Wait so how old is Mister Kalala then? He doesn't look like he’d be much older than his mid thirties if he was ... well on a human I would assume he was.. Well… you know ... “

 

Jukilo looked down at her. “Ozainu is violet. A seadweller. He’s as high on the hemospectrum as a troll can be without actually ruling the planet. Seadwellers can live for hundreds if not thousands of sweeps before actually beginning to show any sign of aging. While I do not personally know his precise age I would assume since he served for several hundred sweeps under the Condescension, he would be at least 600 years old. At the very minimum.”

 

Rosalyn stared ahead blankly for several minutes taking it in.

 

While they finished purchasing the last of the food supplies at the grocery store and Jukilo gave the store the address of the ship for the goods to be shipped to and Rosalyn absentmindedly stroked the top of Mowgli’s carry basket.

 

“What does that mean for us then? Why does a person hundreds of years old suddenly want to raise a child?”

 

Jukilo looked back to her, one of his long ears twitching. “Did you say something?”

 

Rosalyn plastered a smile on her face. ”No just thinking outloud to myself. Its nothing.”

 

They exited the store and at her insistence they both bought slushies from the bored girl at the booth now surrounded by excited trolls waiting in line for selfies with her.

                                                     

The food and other immediately necessary supplies now dealt with they now ambled around the mall, passing by clothing stores and watching the other trolls get into trouble with the malls terrified security by trying to swim in the indoor fountain and stage mock anime inspired battles in the children’s play area with real weapons .

 

Rosalyn looked over her shoulder at the sundresses on display, the long cream and daffodil yellow frocks sat alluringly on their mannequins.

Jukilo took a slurp of his slushie, slightly buzzed from the sugar.  “You should buy them.”

 

Rosalyn jumped in surprise at hearing his voice, she turned to look at him the straw of her slushie still in her mouth.

 

“That would be…” she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head “Unconscionable. I couldn’t use his funds to-”

 

Jukilo waggled his straw in front of Mowgli and the child grabbed at it with pudgy fingers and cooed. “Get something nice for yourself? As I see it you are going to be the caregiver of the adopted son of one of the most influential seadwellers on Alternia and as such you will need to dress nicely in order to act the part of a nobleman’s servant. He couldn’t have you dress in just anything could he? It would be unconscionable NOT to buy the dresses.”

 

“Alright first of all-” she slurped some slushie indignantly. “I don’t dress ‘in just anything’ my clothes are just fine thank you very much, maybe not NOBLE but just fine.”Her eyebrows quirked up “Also you are very good at rationalizing spending your Boss’s money on frilly dresses.”

 

Jukilo smiled at her. “I was a desk worker on Alternia doing expenses for years. I once had to make the case that a hot tub was a ‘necessary relaxation investment’...”

 

Rosalyn snorted into her slushie cup. “Oh my.”

 

Jukilo chuckled into his own cup and looked at her over his shades, the store tag still dangling off of them. “But in all seriousness, you should not feel guilty, as I stated before he is member of the violet-blooded caste, he is pseudo-royalty, only one step away from the EMPRESS herself.”

 

Rosalyn summoned her gumption and smiled at the troll. “You know what?” she giggled, putting a hand daintily to her mouth to cover a small burp. “I think I will.”

 

Jukilo sat out of the dressing room texting someone on his phone.

 

“I changed my mind!” Rosalyn called from the dressing room. “This is far too much money!”

 

Jukilo lazily tapped at his phone, smiling at a new text. “Well how much money is it?”

 

Rosalyn looked at the frock’s tag in horror. “two-HUNDRED dollars! Can you believe that?? Why on this good green earth is a dress priced at two-hundred dollars?!”

 

Jukilo scoffed. “Really it's not that much.”

 

Rosalyn squeaked in indignation “Two HUNDRE- Ah! Honestly! I could buy, gosh, with that kind of money! JEEZ LOUISE!”

 

Jukilo sat back in his chair. “Pseudo-royalty remember? Sea-dwellers have bought entire moons before as monsoon-season homes, this is less than pocket change to him. And as such there is no need for such guilt. Also please refrain from calling me louise as it is not my name My name is Jukilo, therefore I refuse to be called Louise.”

 

Jukilo knocked on the changing room door. “Alright come on. As you are due to have exited and you have failed to do so you should therefore exit the stall.”

 

Rosalyn opened the door just a crack, one large doe-eye peeking out from between the split of door and doorframe. “You SWEAR this is less than pocket money?”

 

Jukilo nodded. “You might as well be taking a penny out of a coinjar in a room filled with thirty thousand coin jars. In this analogy the pennies would in fact be Alternian currency, this currency would be worth more than pennies, and in fact- total enough money to buy several moons.”

 

She stepped out the yellow sundress billowing out around her. Like a summer flower, petals lazily brushing the floor, two pearly white sandals peeking out from underneath.

 

Jukilo smiled at her. “Well?”

 

Rosalyn hunched a little in on herself. “Well what?”

 

Jukilo chuckled “Do you feel pretty?”

 

Rosalyn swayed back and forth enjoying the way the fabric flowed. “....Yeah…”

 

He smiled down at her. “Can you see yourself as a nobleman’s servant in this?”

 

She smiled shyly and ran a hand over the fabric, more expensive, far prettier than anything she had ever been allowed to buy for herself before. “....yeah….”

 

“Good. You’re going to buy 5 more.”

 

Rosalyn gaped at him. “But. I couldn’t. Two hundred dollars! I-”

 

Jukilo shrugged. “As there are six days in an Alternian week I am only being practical.”

 

Rosalyn got the yellow sundress. She also bought a white one who’s skirt ended in the middle of her calves, layered like a rose, a pale summer green one with embroidered roses along the hem, a cream one layered with sheer lace and a white one with a lace back, accentuated with a smart sunflower belt.

 

There were also more cream colored blouses with ruffle fronts, smart black and brown skirts, a variety of sensible shoes in a variety of browns whites and blacks as well as an assortment of hats.

 

Rosalyn looked over her collection of fine garments as they started towards the check out.

 

“...I can’t be dressed like a fine lady all of the time...what if I need something to garden in or clean in…”

 

She wandered over to an aisle of tie-dyed dresses. “Maybe something casual to-”

 

Jukilo stopped her hand. “No.”

 

Rosalyn blinked at him. “..what? Why?”

 

Jukilo grimaced at the dress. “Color is very important in our society a dress such as this...mixing the colors in such a LEWD way would be inappropriate.”

 

“Oh I had no idea-”

 

Jukilo stuffed the dress into the cart.

 

Rosalyn looked on dumbfounded “But you JUST said-”

 

Jukilo looked over at her. “We’re buying the dress just you’re not going to wear it.”

 

But wh-”

 

“REASONS.”

 

When they had finally finished at the mall they made their way back, exhausted but satisfied, to the hotel Ozainu was staying at. Rosalyn had ended up having to drive the car, Jukilo had finished off his slushie and half of hers as well and was apparently not fit to drive.

 

Troll Biology had a difficult time breaking down certain sugars commonly found in human sweets. The troll's system would work shakily at it for a while straining to give the troll a brief small energy boost, then give up, throw in the towel and go home for the night, leaving the troll intoxicated.

 

No one had as of yet tried to see what giving a troll alcohol would do. Common sense dictated that if 2 shots of maple syrup could hit a troll like whiskey, whiskey might just have the same effect on the average troll as a shot of drain cleaner would on a human.

 

Jukilo had attempted to explain this to Rosalyn but he had had a difficult time getting around the word intoxication without giggling and was now curled up in the back seat of the car cradling the carry basket that mowgli now slept in.

After sending Jukilo home in a cab Rosalyn made her way into the hotel.

 

The lobby was ostentatiously large with dark gleaming polished marble and gold accents. A Fountain sat in the center, opulent and unsurprisingly, gold with a depressingly chubby baby with tiny pointless wings, sitting in a clam shell, pearly water spilling out into the basin.

 

“...Excuse me?” the woman behind the counter had bleached white blond hair cut into an elegant bob,red lips and a thick gold cuff around her neck above the slick black of her uniform. Her eyeliner was sharp enough to lacerate someone.

 

Her eyes raked up and down Rosalyn, who felt exposed to her gaze.

 

“...can I….HELP...you with something?...” the woman plastered on a false smile and gave Rosalyn a look  that told her distinctly that she would be thrown out if she had tracked any dirt in.

 

Rosalyn shifted uncomfortably and unconsciously checked her shoes. She nodded shyly and Mowgli cooed in the stroller. “...Um yes...Could you please tell the occupant of the president’s suite that his nanny has arrived?”

 

The woman picked up the phone and made a show of pushing buttons. “Hello? Yes, I have a woman here with a baby? … What's that?” the woman’s face was a picture of surprise. The kind of picture that hangs in museums and gets scrutinised by experts only for the experts to notice some extraneous, yet importantly off tiny detail and inform the museum owners that this wasn't, infact, an original.

 

“You don’t want to speak with her? Oh my!”

 

Rosalyn’s forehead creased. “Mam’ my employer told me to come here. He said to ask for him. I don't think he would-”

 

The woman interrupted her, grimacing. “Look sweetie.” she leaned in “You can take your nanny shtick elsewhere. The occupant of the president’s suite certainly wouldn’t know YOU. He’s an extremely important ALIEN ambassador here on important interplanetary business. He certainly wouldn't have anything to do with a grubby little thing like you or your illegitimate brat.”

 

Rosalyn was taken aback. “Look just call him! He’ll tell you who I am! This is his son!”

 

The woman laughed, a cruel series of quiet huffs. “The occupant of the president’s suit doesn’t have a SON! He’s a Troll for god’s sake! You should have done your research!”

 

Rosalyn was getting desperate . “I am NOT-”

 

A dark presence loomed over the both of them.

 

Ozainu looked down at the two humans and once again,and noticed what he was hoping wouldn’t become, a pattern.

 

Rosalyn, shoulders hunched face on the edge of panicking, infant clutched in front of her like a shield. The person in front of her looming(or trying to)the subtle look of a bully suffusing their posture and face.

 

He had been getting some much needed exercise in the hotels above ground pool when Jukilo had called and informed him that they had finished purchasing supplies for the night and that he had dropped Rosalyn and Mowgli off at the hotel.

 

He had argued with, bribed and eventually threatened the pale haired front desk woman until they replaced the unpleasant chlorinated water in the pool with decent salt water.

 

That hadn’t been fun. Well. The bribing bit hadn’t been fun.

 

The humans had taken forever to do it, so when he had finally slipped into the pool after a very trying day he was less than pleased to be called to the front desk to deal with that same pinch faced human who had made it so difficult for him to go for a swim.

 

Claws raked across the smooth black marble of the front desk screeching across the surface and leaving thin grooves in the countertop.

 

He was going to need to do some serious maintenance work after today, his claws were in danger of chipping and he couldn't have that.

 

The finely dressed humans that were in the lobby near the front desk covered their ears and clutched their pearls and tiny dogs in panic.

 

The desk worker had gone white and looked up, her eyes wide, false eyelashes fluttering like moths caught in a web that had just spotted the spider.

 

Ozainu looked down at the cowering woman eyes narrowing. He was wearing a dark violet tank top and grey sweat pants. His not inconsiderable bulk was on display, old faint battle scars scattered over his arms. Still slightly damp from the pool, a towel around his neck.

 

He looked down at the hotel worker and flexed his fingers dislodging bits of marble from his claws. He glared down at the worker.

 

The woman was trembling, her breathing hard and shallow sounding loudly in the deathly quiet lobby.

 

He snapped at Rosalyn who had straightened up considerably when he had walked up. “Top floor. Take the child to the suite. I’ll be in the pool.” Handing her a flat plastic room key he walked off in a manner that was too poised to be considered stomping but conveyed the sentiment nevertheless.

 

Rosalyn politely asked a terrified bellboy to retrieve the items she would need for the next few nights from the car and to have the rest shipped over to the starship, under her employer's name. He shook his head jerkily, still staring at Ozainu’s retreating figure, presumably heading back to the pool.

 

Rosalyn stepped into the private elevator for the presidential suite, a line of terrified bellboys following her like ants carrying boxes upon boxes of goods that she and Jukilo had bought.

 

She looked out of the glass elevator the city sprawling before her like a suburban tapestry, infinitely detailed, movement and sharp lines and lights coming together to form a beautiful whole.

 

The bellboys quickly dropped off their goods, only lingering long enough to glance around the room nervously as if a eight foot tall troll might throw a harpoon at them at any moment before quickly scurrying away.

 

She looked at the suite and judging by which room was larger, and had massive clothes sprawled over the furniture, quickly ascertained which one was her employer’s. She gingerly lifted a massive pair of sweatpants up curiously and found that they were nearly as tall as she was.

 

She thought bemusedly that he really was colossal.

 

She took one of the smaller bedrooms and started to unpack. She put mowgli on the bed and he sleepily waved his little hands at her.

 

She giggled and smoothed back a pale tuft of hair. “...What a good little baby…” she cooed.

 

She sniffed the air and frowned slightly. “What a stinky little baby…”

 

She rifled through the packages and quickly retrieved the diapers, laying a little blanket across the table she silently apologized to the expensive looking mahogany.

 

One diaper changing later Mowgli waved his little arms and yawned. Putting one tiny pale pink foot in his mouth. Rosalyn smiled at him.

 

Oh thats right! She rooted through some more bags coming back with some baby onesies and socks.

 

“..now…” she addressed the baby. “Do you want the yellow one with the little brown deer?..” she wiggled a yellow onesie with tiny prancing stylized deer. “..Or the green striped one with the froggies?” the second outfit had little frogs playing in the lily pads on the belly, and a lily pad on the butt.

 

Mowgli gurgled and rolled slightly to the side.

 

Rosalyn grinned and put her hands on her hips. “Good idea! Deer today, frog tomorrow!”

 

She dressed him in the little yellow onesie, Mowgli smiling and looking around the room with wide grey-blue eyes. Next came a tiny pair of butter yellow socks and a little pale yellow hat.

 

She blew a raspberry against his tummy and tittered when Mowgli wiggled and laughed, his toothless mouth wide in a smile.

 

She unboxed one of the toys, a large red ring with brightly colored baubles for Mowgli to shake and jangle. She walked to the bathroom with it.

 

Mowgli murmured distressed when he couldn’t see her anymore.

 

Rosalyn peeked out of the doorway “Here I am!”

 

Mowgli, seeing her, grinned wide and toothless laughing breathlessly and wiggling where he laid down on the bed.

 

Rosalyn washed off the toy and came back to give it to Mowgli who promptly shook it as hard as he could, the little baubles jingling and jangling, and put it in his mouth.

 

Rosalyn hummed to herself and started to put together the stroller.

 

Having finished exercising in the, now expensively salinated, pool,Ozainu made his way back to the suite. Occasionally catching sight of a terrified porter or maid fleeing in his wake, the look on his face couldn't have been called smug in good consciousness, but it was definitely a close cousin. He appreciated a little terror in the staff. Not too much, but a stab of healthy terror kept lowbloods on their toes so the saying went.

 

He quietly entered and, noticing the light on in one of the smaller side bedrooms padded quietly over the plush rugs over to the door.

 

The human was working diligently in construction of some sort of wheeled child containment unit her brows furrowed diligently over blueprints laid out onto the floor, parts arranged in a circle around her in neat piles.

 

The child threw its toy and immediately started to cry, distressed burbling and loud warbling shrieks.

 

The human immediately stopped her work and went to the child, retrieving the baubles from where they had fallen onto the floor and wiping them off before returning them to the child.

“Here you go…” she picked up the infant and his burbling cries slowed until only the occasional tear or hiccup, he grabbed the toy and moodily put it in his mouth.

 

“See that's what happens when you throw something away…” she chastised gently. “Then you don’t have it anymore…”

 

She began to gently shift her weight from leg to leg and rock the child back and forth in her arms. Ozainu nodded to himself satisfied that she was already doing her job properly and was about to leave her to her business, to get some sleep, when she started to sing.

 

High and almost birdlike in his ears he caught in the soft lyrics of the song a peaceful feeling of wide open fields and a melancholy sweet and bitter feeling suffusing the air of an alien world where a single pale moon rose over dark water.

 

He paused and listened, the tips of his ears the only part of him that moved in the gloom of the doorway.

 

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_R2x9Rp_nQ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_R2x9Rp_nQ)

 

Down by the Salley garden my love and I did meet…

She passed the salley Gardens on little snow white feet…

She bid me to take love easy

As the leaves grow on the trees

But I was young and foolish

And with her did not agree…

 

In a field by the river my love and I did stand

And on my weary shoulder

She laid her snow white hand

She bid me to take love easy

As the moss grows on the weirs..

But I was young and foolish

And now I am full of tears…

 

Mowgli was now asleep his little eyelids flickering. He sighed contentedly in his sleep. Rosalyn put down the child and ran a knuckle gently down his cheek she turned and-

 

“Gah-!” Rosalyn turned to see a pair of glowing yellow eyes looming eight feet off the ground in the doorway and for a moment she forgot her boss. She slapped a hand over her mouth, worried her outburst woke Mowgli but the infant only scrunched up his face and murmured in his sleep.

Ozainu blinked and seemed for a moment caught off guard. He rallied quickly though and did something he hadn't done in decades. Say the first thing that popped into his head.

“So is that something that most humans can do? The twitter singing thing?”

 

If he had had less stringent control of his face at that moment, a look of *oh god why did I just say that* would have been quite at home on it. As he did have control of his face it stayed impassive.

 

It took Rosalyn a moment to process that one. “...um...I suppose so?”

 

“It's rather pleasant. For all that it sounds like feather beasts.”

 

They both stood there for a few awkward moments trying to figure out what to say next.

Ozainu was the first to move and cleared his throat in a distinctly uncomfortable manner and turned, breaking the eye contact.

 

“We will be departing in two days. Spend the next day getting your affairs into order. I will be tying up the last of the paperwork in the meantime.”

 

He did not wish her a good night but shot her a last look over his shoulder before leaving for his own room. The door clicked softly in the silence.

 

Rosalyn stood in the middle of the room dumbfounded.

 

The last thought that crossed her mind that night before she went to sleep in the enormous bed was-

 

*...did he just?...did he call me a bird?*.


	5. 4, 3, 2, 1, EARTH BELOW US, Drifting … falling.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ozainu and Rosalyn finally make it off planet.

The next two days were busier if not as melodramatic as that first day had been.

The bulk of the supplies that Rosalyn had purchased with Jukilo that first night would be enough to tide her and Mowgli over for months if not a year, until they figured out what they could and couldn’t eat on Alternia, but there were still a thousand other little things that would need to be purchased for the care and raising of an infant.  
Garden seeds, diapers, teething toys, high chairs. Copious amounts of yarn, a sewing machine, knitting needles.

Most of these physical things that needed purchasing were acquired online via expensive next day shipping and would be loaded directly onto the ship.

No it was information that Rosalyn was so keen on bringing with her. Communication between worlds was slow. At least by human standards. Human media could be downloaded to Alternia via satellite, but the time it took to download a single film was half that of the time it took to simply fly over to earth.

So Rosalyn spent most of the second day downloading book upon book onto the vaguely squishy bio-harddrive that Ozainu had provided her for the media she would need for the next 3 years.

For some reason he had been very adamant that she not download any kind of japanese cartoons whatsoever.

She had been a bit puzzled by this, but hadn't pushed the manner.

She downloaded several seasons of sesame street, a few of blues clues, most of Disney’s extensive archive and schoolhouse rock and left it at that for Mowgli.

She then spent several happy hours downloading as many books, audio books, dictionaries, documentaries, and obscure wood carving tutorials as her heart desired. She offered to go over it with Ozainu but he had glanced over the sesame street episodes and had hand waved the matter off. Seemingly he trusted her judgment on what a growing infant's mind would need.

Prodded on by the odd moment they had shared the night before when he had caught her singing she began downloading music. Classical, operas, traditional celtic and even some somber folk and jazz songs.

Carmen, Madame Butterfly, Violetta and Alfredo, The Queen of Spades.

And classic movies of course! Who could ever go off world without Casablanca? Gone with the wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Sunset Boulevard, Citizen Kane, all nine hours of The Godfather.

She looked over her shoulder out of habit and, with her mouse hovering over another window lest a parent walk in on her, downloaded the Royal Albert Hall recording of Phantom of the Opera.

Well a girl was allowed to have guilty pleasures wasn't she?

Mowgli made a small squeaky noise in the carrier next to her and she jumped, immediately minimising the download window.

She stared at her hands for a little while.

Who was going to care if she downloaded silly musicals. She was an adult. She was going to be on a ship to another world tomorrow. This was silly. She looked around, the habits of a lifetime checking for her parents, then chastised herself.

You know what?  
She could download phantom of the opera if she wanted too. She could download the 2004 movie version if she wanted to, Gerard Butler be damned! Hell she could download the 1989 horror time travel version with the phantom played by Freddy from nightmare on elmstreet. She had always wanted to see a horror movie and nothing was stopping her now!

Who was going to care? Her 8 foot tall alien boss? He probably ate movies like that for breakfast!

She downloaded a few more silly musicals and the entire nightmare on elmstreet uvra after that just to prove to herself that she could. In a burst of heady bravery she even downloaded Alien but deleted it after a few seconds.  
Yeah maybe not. There was brave and then there was just inviting disaster.

The day passed like that and she only caught sight of Ozainu once more before it was somehow night again. He asked her if everything was in order and nodding, went back to his room.

Then it was tomorrow,

And she was standing next to Ozainu outside of the modified airport that now functioned as a spacecraft launching site. The Ship was to arrive in 2 hours.  
Ozainu was not particularly talkative and after he had given her the bare bones rundown of what the trip would be he had pulled out a tablet and tuned out the rest of the airport.

She fidgeted trying to read a book for a couple of minutes but gave up and, after making sure Mowgli wasn't hungry or in need of changing, excused herself for a moment to make a phone call. Ozainu had nodded and waved her off reminding her of the departing time. She left mowgli’s carrier in her seat next to Ozainu, who absently put an arm around the carrier when she left.

She made her way to a payphone and, after some confusion on her part, slotted the credit card into the machine and pulled out the business card Jukilo had given her two nights earlier.

Several miles away in a sleepy suburb:

Chloe Bell stretched in bed her back audibly cracking. “...Jukes…” she murmured and pushed on her boyfriend’s grey back. “...What’s th’ beeping Jukes?...”

She rolled out of bed her new tie-dyed dress bunched around her hips and fell onto the floor with a loud WHOMP and crawled over to the bedside table her curly black hair fluffed up and in her face. She swiped the phone off the table, a number she didn’t recognize lighting up the phone.

Weird.

“Hello?” she answered.

Rosalyn stood stock straight in the phone booth. “OH! um...I’m sorry I was...I was trying to reach a Mr. Jukilo Jurrok? He um...He gave me this number to contact him by? Its Rosalyn. I was the one hired by Mr.Kalala to be uhm ... well, I know him from um- well not Mr.Kalala but Jukilo I know him from … work..”

Chloe looked fondly at where Jukilo laid snoring into the pillow his question-mark shaped horns bumping into the headboard, three empty slushie cups littered the end table.

She looked to where one of his wrists was secured to the headboard with his own tie. “.... Juke’s is a little tied up at the moment. Can I take a message?”

“Oh…” Rosalyn fidgeted in the phone booth. “I’m sorry...he told me I could call if I needed to get in contact with hu- nevermind this is- here I am a strange woman calling on your significant other’s phone and I-”

Chloe laughed so hard she laid down on the carpeted floor of their bedroom. “Oh my god I’m not worried about him cheating. He’s so in love with me it’s embarrassing.”

Rosalyn brightened and covered a snicker with a hand. “ Oh! You must be Chloe. He has your picture set as his screensaver.”

Chloe wiggled on the carpet. “I knoooow he’s too sweet!” she giggled. “He came home drunk off slushies and tried to compose a sonnet about me…Well he mostly just purred and giggled, but it’s the thought that counts.”

Rosalyn was laughing to herself her thin shoulders shaking in mirth. When the last time she laughed with someone? She stopped the last bit of what Chloe has said sinking in.

“Wait...Trolls purr?”

“HOLD UP! Oh my god it is the cutest thing!” Chloe popped up from the floor. “Let me show you! Here.”

She placed the phone onto the pillow next to Jukilo’s sleeping face.

Rosalyn had to bite a knuckle to keep from making a scene in the middle of the airport by bursting out howling with laughter, as the purring came loud and clear over the phone. A deep thrumming with high contented warbly cricket like chirps interjected every once in awhile.

“Awww….” Rosalyn put a hand to her cheek “That is so precious. I had no idea trolls did that.”

Chloe giggled and flopped back down on the floor. “Yeah it is too cute! Wait shit we got distracted, wait what were you calling for?”

Rosalyn laughed quietly to herself. “...I think I got what I was calling for...I’m going to Alternia for a ‘lususing contract’ and...would it...be ok...to call again?”

Chloe hummed and smiled. “Call me any time, me or Laura or Thomas, Crocodile dad. Maybe even Sharon, I’m sure we would all be willing to talk with you. It’s probably not going to be easy. There aren't a lot of humans being allowed to make the transit over to alternia yet, so it might get a little lonely over there. ”

Rosalyn’s brow furrowed. “You’re all friends… colleagues of Jukilo … Crocodile dad?”

Chloe nodded and picked at her nails. “Yeah. Minnie too. She’s with Croc.”

“Minnie and Crocodile dad?”

“Yup!” Chloe chirped “Croc’s cool! He raised Juklio from an itty bitty grub. He has pictures, it’s kind of adorable. He’s an alternian Lusus here on an exchange program, raising Minnie right now. It is the absolute cutest thing ever.”

Rosalyn shrugged “Well alright.” she smiled secretly into the receiver. “Thank you for… for speaking with me, and … thank you for the offer. I’ll definitely take you up on that.”

Chloe giggled. “Same!”

Rosalyn hung up. Her spirits were significantly lighter as she made her way back to Ozainu and Mowgli.

Sitting back down Rosalyn decided to people watch instead of read or watch a movie with headphones on. She looked around at the other people waiting for the Starship to be ready for passenger loading.

There were two other bored looking trolls in chic alien military couture with finns, highbloods she assumed, a rather put out looking troll with what looked like a inside out t-shirt on and messily dyed black hair. Somebody who hadn't quite gotten the right idea about earth from anime, and towards the back a huge troll, with wide willdabeast like horns in a sailor moon outfit, was handcuffed and muzzled. Flanked by 4 human police the huge troll was looking very grumpy indeed. She squinted. Was he wearing clown makeup?

The large troll struggled against his bonds, the mini skirt of the Sailor Moon uniform flaring around large scarred and muscular thighs “THEY SAID THE REBOOT WAS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL!!” . She whipped back around not wanting to be caught staring.

Ozainu looked down at her from the corner of his eye, then over his shoulder at the manacled troll behind them. He gave an almost amused huff and answered the question she hadn't asked.

“Ex-Subjuggulator probably.”

Rosalyn looked up. “Pardon?”

Ozainu looked back down to his tablet. “He’s probably being sent back for making trouble. Subjuggulators of his cast tend to, even the ex ones. Crazy, violent, cultists the lot of them. This one probably just caused a ruckus, nothing to sever if I'm any judge, and I am.”

Rosalyn sneaked another quick peek over at the apparent ex-subjuggulator. “What makes you think it was just a ruckus? He’s pretty seriously chained up over there. Those manacles look troll made, and all the guards...”

Ozainu didn't even bother looking up.

“Trolls of his cast with that kind of face paint are, or were, known for being berserker killing machines. With a taste for painting in their enemies, and more often victim's, blood.”

Rosalyn looked up her eyes wide. She tried very hard not to whip her head around to stare.  
“So.. uhm why ...doesn't…”

Ozainu looked almost bored. “Well that's it isn't it.” He drolled.

“He’s being sent back in chain’s not in pieces. If he’d actually gone on some sort of murder spree he wouldn't be sent back at all. No. With that ridiculous getup, he looks more like one of those animation fanatic’s. I’ve seen-” he paused here his face twisting in pained disgust, “-other trolls like him. Obsessed with human culture animated media.”

Rosalyn was trying to look over her shoulder without looking like that was what she was doing. A well known practice in airports.

He made a disgusted “eughhh” noise with the back of his throat. “No he probably just caused some property damage, landed a few people in the hospital, maybe defaced some local church with his own blood and burned it down. Something minor like that.”

Rosalyn turned back around and looked back at Ozainu “Yes … minor …”

She gave up people watching and picked up Mowgli’s carrier and placed it in her lap. She spent the next half hour waiting for the ship by playing peekaboo with Mowgli who would make happy squeaky noises every time she said “Peekaboo!” Ozainu made no comment and either ignored them or pretended to.

Then it was time to board.

Rosalyn walked with Ozainu down a fairly average compacting hallway, like those used at every airport to connect the terminal to the airplane. Ozainu hunching down uncomfortably to avoid catching his horns on the ceiling. The hallway opened out on an enormous room. The ceiling was impossibly high, lined on one side entirely in a smooth curved wall of glass, a few trolls milled about across polished white floors a holographic screen stated things calmly in what she assumed was alternian glowing green numbers scrawling across the screen. A tall almond-eyed sea dweller woman walked past them, gold cuffs around her wrists and a pearl headdress in loops trailing down her hair, flowy violet fabric trailing behind her like orchid petals.

The ex-subjuggulator from before was snarling at a pair of nervous-looking guards with cobalt striping on their uniforms, both armed with something that looked like an oversized cattle prod. On a line of smooth-lined white benches against the far wall a robust-looking troll in sunglasses and a navy blue novelty baseball cap was passed out cradling a bottle of authentic canadian maple syrup.

Ozainu walked briskly through the corridors and hallways following what Rosalyn assumed was some kind of map on his tablet.

They entered Ozainu’s quarters and once more Rosalyn was reminded of how influential and apparently affluent her employer was. The room was clearly specialized for someone of his class if not him specifically. Long low violet chaises trimmed with gold tassels. A suite of rooms connected in the center with a large common room. With violet accents everywhere just like on his clothing.

He picked up an enormous suitcase, large enough to fit at least two fully grown humans, which had been placed with their luggage by the door, and walked over to a wall with 3 doorways. “This room is mine.” he said gesturing to the door on the right. “You’ll stay with the child in the maroon rooms over there.” He gestured to the door on the left with the maroon edging. “The middle door leads to the ablution block.”

He walked into the room and over his shoulder she caught “Get me if there is an emergency or if the crew give you trouble. Otherwise try not to make too much noise.” She was then left alone with Mowgli and the luggage.

Peeking her head into the “servants quarters” Rosalyn found a series of small rooms including a modest walk in closet and what looked like a weird squishy intercom system on the wall next to the couch.

There was no bed anywhere to be found, but the couch was sized for troll use and was well padded and would be more than comfortable enough. She found sheets and blankets tucked in a bottom drawer in a dresser, next to the oddly chitinous television.  
After making the couch bed she wandered back into the main room. Mowgli was still there in the entry room, teething on a bright yellow plastic ring connected to several other bright yellow plastic rings by a bright blue plastic ring, and seemed settled down enough for now.

Rosalyn looked around trying to accustom herself to the new environment.

She ended up staring at the large blank wall at the back of the room. There was some sort of switch to the far right and the wall looked like it was sectioned somehow. There were tiny labels in alternian under the switch. Pulling out her tablet she ran the alternian through google translate.  
This actually worked and the little window on the tablet translated the alternian as “Window Covering OPEN/CLOSE”. Rather fascinated, she flicked the switch.

To her surprise what she had originally taken as a solid wall went opaque then clear. The outside of the airport was now visible, if several stories below. Tentatively she put out a hand and touched the, now clear, wall. It felt like … well like a wall. Not hot or cold or tingly or like anything special really.

She pulled her hand back and noticed that she had left a handprint on the window.

She watched the tiny figures below detach the connector hallway from the ship and pull off several other likely important tubes. Then everyone was backing off from the ship and she felt a tiny tremor run up through her feet.

This was it.

No turning back from here. She put a hand on Mowgli’s carry basket and looked down at him. He would likely never remember earth, even in the most distant of dreams. She looked back out at the airport only… it wasn't there. The ship had lifted off of the tarmac and was hurtling up at a ferocious rate and she hadn't noticed.

She felt no tug downwards but sat down hard on the floor anyways.

Clouds were rushing past her now and all she could see was billowing grey-white swirling around the window, and the second her eyes had adjusted to the clouds they broke the surface and the clouds were vanishing quickly below.

The sky was a bright, bright blue, but it darkened fast and in, one, two, three, heart beats it was black and she could see stars beginning to twinkle in the sky, as the ship hurtled on.

Ozainu walked in to see Rosalyn sitting in a large armchair easily twice her size that she had somehow dragged around to face the viewport on the far side of the entry room. She had turned the window transparent and was watching the earth slowly shrink below them to the size of a marble.

He had worked with fresh conscripts for a very long time by human standards and had a pretty good idea what was going through her head.

She spoke without looking around.

“You know I thought I would feel something, watching my planet, my home, the place I was born and raised and grew up on all of it, shrink away to just another twinkle in the sky, and I guess I do, but it’s… not what I expected.”

Ozainu walked up to stand next to her chair. “Let me guess. Loss. A bizarre sudden knowledge of how small your home and thusly you really are in the universe. Some measure of excitement at the journey ahead. A profound sense of displacement possibly? These feelings are quite common. They should settle down to background hive-sickness in a perigee or two at worst.” He listed these things off in a vaguely amused tone, looking down at her from the corner of his eye.

“Not at all.”

He looked down at her in full now, wanting to get a proper look at her face.

“No I don’t think I’ll miss Earth.”

She looked up at him, then further up a bit more to meet his eyes, straining her neck ever so slightly. Seeing his raised eyebrow she added quickly, “I’m sure people mourn the loss of the things they find familiar when they leave“ She looked down out the window “But the only things I’ve ever known there are things that I definitely will not miss.” She paused for a moment and looked back out at the stars.

”You met the man who raised me. I was raised by him and another. My mother. They didn't … They weren't… I mean they never h-hit me or anything, not really but, I wasn't… I wasn't really a person in their eyes. ” Ozainu stayed quiet and watched her. Rosalyn faced the window but her eyes were looking out somewhere else.

“I was just something to dress up and to wind up and set out into the world to do the things they couldn't do, or … I don't know. Maybe just something that had to be put up with.” She peeked up over a shoulder at him.

Ozainu’s face was not unkind but it didn't seem to be sympathetic either.

She drew her legs up and rested her chin on them. “Nevermind. I’ll never see either of them ever again so it doesn't matter. I can just move on. Make a fresh start of things so to speak.”

Ozainu sat down on the floor next to her armchair. This brought him down roughly to her eyeline.

He sat next to her like that for a while and she was just nodding off, curled up in the chair when she heard his voice.

“I thought I knew what you would say or at least I thought I had a general idea. I was off by quite a wide margin.”

“Sorry…” she murmured peeping her eyes open to look at him leaning his head on the chair.

“Don't be. It does me good to be wrong every few decades.”

He raised his head a bit.

“So don't do it again for at least 10 more sweeps or I will be very upset with you.”

She caught the twinkle in his eye though his face was still impassive. Was that a smile tucked, very carefully where no one else might see it, in the corner of his mouth?  
She chuckled quietly to herself, and as she drifted off to sleep she noticed him putting his hand up to the window.

Right next to where she had left her own handprint.


	6. GETTING TO KNOW YOU, AND OTHER UNPLEASANT SURPRISES

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whoops I guess smooth sailing couldn't be expected for long.

Rosalyn walked around the ship aimlessly Mowgli in his stroller the wheels squeaking against the smooth white floors. The ship seemed to be a mix of human and troll influences, bearing the sleek white and open floor plans that was becoming standard in human-made spacecraft and the squishy and chitinous Alternian technology. The squishy tablet given to her by Ozainu on earth was able to pull up a map of the ship, highlighting different routes in different colors of what she was beginning to recognize as the hemospectrum.

 

Everything was just a little too big it was like living in a dollhouse. She had to hop up to sit in the benches in the lobby and her feet were nowhere close to touching the floor as she fed Mogli his bottle, patting his back as he murmured.

Meals were delivered regularly to the room, but she was starting to get cabin fever pacing about in the room all day, so on day three of the voyage she decided to explore the ship.

 

She found a couple of observation rooms on the map, one of which she quickly left when she opened the door only to discover a pair of trolls half undressed in the middle of a raucous make-out session.

 

She covered Mowgli’s eyes and backed out of the room.

 

She found the kitchens, trolls in sleek black uniforms with olive green to teal edging and signs, frying and stirring large pots, one of them was fighting viciously with a three-eyed spindly creature that refused to get into a pot.

 

Down and up the long hallways of cabins, her and Ozainu’s suite was at the top of the ship, sparsely populated with trolls that were reddish purple with fins like him.

 

The seadweller woman she had seen on the first day was their neighbor and she always left at the same time wearing something extremely opulent with a low neckline. Even to Rosalyn’s untrained eye she could tell the woman was flirting with Ozainu on the rare moments he left the cabin to go use the pool, but after the woman’s phone rang out a japanese song to alert her to a text message Ozainu had steadily given her the cold-shoulder.

 

The next floor down some trolls in facepaint were passed out in the hallway and it looked like someone had thrown a pie at the wall, that was slowly eating through the metal … oh dear. The cabins seemed slightly smaller from what she glimpsed through open doors. Still large but not as opulently enormous as Ozaniu’s suites.

 

Then there were austere-looking deep indigo blue dressed aliens who she recognized as the head guards on the ship outside of what looked like modest respectable looking cabins, a flash of guilt here and there. Some interesting customizations.

 

She saw a few cerulean-blue ones and even some of Jukilo’s caste in the floor right below. Was it just her or were the ship planners taking less time with the decoration as the floors went down? The walls were a plain austere metal, it seemed almost military. Working cabins then, she went down another floor.

 

Alright now this is just getting ridiculous.

 

The last floor was a conglomerate of the last couple of castes. A troll woman in maroon leggings hissed at a skinny sparking boy with mustard yellow headphones as she walked by. Constantly bumping into each other and yelling in alternian. It was awkward getting through with how congested the halls became. It looked like everyone on these levels shared rooms with at least one roommate, a communal bathroom at the end of the hall.

 

She got some weird looks from some of the trolls but none decided to comment only going about their routines in a crowded clash of warmer colors. They actually seemed to part around the baby stroller, looking down at Mowgli warily like he might jump out and or explode.

 

Weird.

 

She traveled back up to one of the higher observation decks. She chose a quiet side room and desperately tried not to think about the couple she had seen earlier. Mowgli blew bubbles and she wiped his face with the corner of his baby blanket.

 

The alien from before with the long horns and the skirt who had been fighting in the airport stomped into the room and sat down heavily on the bench across from Rosalyn with a moody huff. He tossed his wide wildebeest horns angrily and stared out into space through the observation window, his brow furrowed. He wore polkadotted sweatpants and a black tank top with his sign scribbled in. His clothes as a whole seemed a bit too small, as if he was wearing borrowed clothing.

 

Rosalyn considered running for her life but he hadn’t really DONE anything but act like a moody teenager. She edged a bit on her bench putting herself between the alien and Mowgli.

 

She shrugged, oh well, never hurts to be polite. “Hello.” she greeted calmly, nodding her head.

 

The alien, seemingly surprised out of his funk, blinked at her and she could see that the facepaint he had worn, in the rough shape of a luchador’s mask, had been scrubbed off.

 

She adjusted the cap on Mowgli’s head it’s tiny pompom bobbing. “And how are you today?”

 

The troll stood up and from this angle she could see how massive he was, maybe even larger than Ozainu. He plopped down onto the bench beside her, leaning too far into her space and-

 

“THEY MADE ME WEAR PANTS.” he grumped.

 

Rosalyn nodded slowly. Her poor ears. He didn't seem to be aware he was yelling. Leaning away from him. “...That must be...Difficult…” Mowgli stared up seemingly transfixed.

 

The troll growled and crossed his arms. “THAT COSTUME WAS CUSTOM MADE.”

 

Rosalyn nodded in what she hoped was an understanding manner. “That ...such a loss…”

 

The troll seemed satisfied with this and nodded out at the endless space swirling past the window.

 

He perked up and looked over to her “... you know you look JUST like sailor mercury?”

 

Alright that’s it. “Oh no.” She gathered up Mowgli “Would you look at the time I really should be leaving, nice to make your acquaintance.”

 

She bustled past him and out the door as fast as she could without looking suspicious. Mowgli stared back over her shoulder tiny hand waving goodbye as they walked briskly out of the room.

 

Churro watched her leave and looked back out the observation window. Well at least he’d been TRYING ok? But people are still weird. It was hard being the only normal person on the ship.

 

He wondered if he could get her to wear a sailor mercury costume.

 

Rosalyn walked out of the observation room more than a little weirded out. Pausing to put Mowgli back in she rolled the baby-stroller past two cobalt dressed guards that were making rounds, when one spotted her.

 

The taller ones hair was in a braid over his uniform and he slapped both hands over his cheeks in an over exaggerated manner and gasped when he saw Rosalyn. He jiggled the shoulder of his companion to get his attention and pointed at her. The other one also gasped and held his hands to his cheeks.

 

Alright this was weird. “ Uhhm...May I ...Help you two?”

 

The first guard spoke to the second guard. “Na Lambikk aruhda tulla eshti caruk? (isn’t she the cutest little thing?)”

 

The second guard laughed and looked over Rosalyn like a child being presented a new doll. “Kerukik aruujk hagit awada! (So tiny it’s incredible!)” he looked over Rosalyn’s head. “Ashutu ni! kandi la eddu! Ireh nan ushik! (and look! No horns! Not even a bump!)”

 

Rosalyn stepped back indignantly. “Excuse me!”

 

They looked only mildly nonplussed “Ashutu ni! Arudha chadak! (and look! She’s angry!)”

The other shorter troll only cooed louder. “Aruhda KI eshti!! (Even cuter!)”

 

“Aruhda ni rooka ji Ouran Highschool Hostclub.(She looks the main character from Ouran Highschool Hostclub)” the troll made a couple of clicking noises in the back of their throat which must have meant they were thinking “HARUHI FUJIOKA! (Haruhi fujioka)”

 

The other troll made raspy pleased clicks and nodded “HARUHI FUJIOKA!!”

 

What on Earth was a Haruhi?

 

The taller one with the braid snapped his fingers at her like she was a dog “Like this.” he spoke in broken english and struck a pose “Hmm? Yes? Say ‘Kiss kiss fall in love’ and do this yes?” the other one got a phone ready.

 

Oh for god’s sake. “No- look I’m not some kind of performer, I won’t-”

 

The troll from the observation room took a running jump and tackled the two guards. “OURAN HOST CLUB IS FOR ROMANTIC SOFTPANNED  ASSHOLES! SAILOR MOON IS FUCKING BETTER YOU MOTHERF-!”

 

Rosalyn and Mowgli made their escape and someone howled in pain, more cobalt guards rushed past her and in the confusion. The former subjugglator was quickly subdued and dragged back presumably to a holding cell, 3 tranquilizer darts sticking out of an asscheek.

 

What even is happening on this ship?

 

She walked quickly back to Ozainu’s suite, pushing the stroller awkwardly around corners praying she didn't meet any more tr- into anyone else before getting back. She ran the last few feet and after making it back into the room stood hands braced on her knees panting as she got her breath back.

 

Ozainu poked his head out of his rooms. He was dressed in what looked like semiformal swimwear with an enormous violet monogramed towel slung around his neck. He glanced down at Mowgli who looked like most babies of his age, which was to say, vaguely baffled and about ready to break out either giggling or screaming.

 

That was all fine then.

 

Miss.Rosalyn seemed a bit out of breath.

 

He gave her a cool look with slightly raised eyebrows.

 

She smiled up at him ruefully a hand on her knee and raised a finger. One moment. He leaned against his doorframe and waited.

 

When she had caught her breath she gave him an apparently abridged version of her walk. Ozainu rolled his eyes. As far as shenanigans went her trip had been fairly tame. The infant had probably helped.

 

Many trolls had an evolutionarily drilled in disdain for the young of their kind, generally ranging from an inexplicable fear to outright disgust. That was probably the safest bet when your species had nothing to do with its young after conception.

 

Still while she hadn’t been attacked it was probably safer for her to stick closer to him. He was heading out to the pool and Rosalyn still curious despite the days eccentricities followed in his wake. She found that if she kept to his shadow most of the security guards wouldn't notice her. She had noticed that most trolls with colors lower then blue on their clothes tended to avoid eye contact with Ozainu. She didn't blame them but was grateful anyway.

 

Ozainu’s stride was ridiculously long though and she had to trot to keep up. He seemed to take one step for three of hers and by the time they had reached the pool she was a bit out of breath.

 

The doors that lead to the pool opened when Ozainu flashed some sort of identity card at them. As they walked through he warned her not to try to leave without him as the doors wouldn't open without a highblood identity card. She nodded and followed him to the edge of the pool.

 

The pool wasn't at all set up like a human pool would have been. There were lots of smaller individual pools around a huge central one that was at least 50 yards across. The water was dark but there were lights visible, lining the walls of the pool, glittering like stars.  There were huge holes in the walls of the big pool that seemed to lead off to underground rooms completely submerged under the floor. The whole of everything was lined in a black marble with what looked like tasteful underground seaweed and coral gardens visible along the middle of the largest pool.

 

Rosalyn seated herself on one of the cushioned benches that edged the walls of the room and Ozainu dropped his towel and tablet next to her. He gave Mowgli a glance before walking off to presumably get some exercise. Rosalyn looked around the room. It really was quite impressively luxurious. What looked like huge glass tubes were embedded in some of the walls. At least ten feet across Rosalyn puzzled at what they were for, until she saw a finned troll in violet swim down one.

 

It was like a hamster habitrail with branching glass tubes allowing the aquatic trolls to travel across the entire room and even over the ceiling in parts. All while being able to keep an  eye on what everyone else was doing.

 

The troll she had spotted swimming down the tube was the elegant almond eyed sea-dweller woman with the pearl headdress who had been flirting with Ozainu the other day. Rosalyn wondered if they knew each other from before or if this trip had been their first meeting.

 

Mowgli made a fussy noise in the stroller and Rosalyn picked him up out of it and joggled him up and down on her knee. He crowed and giggled at this and she smiled.

 

She kept Ozainu in the corner of her eye. He was so much bigger than most of the other trolls she had seen, save for the one who had attacked the annoying guards earlier.

 

He was swimming up one of the glass tubes on the other side of the room. She gave him a small polite wave and he had looked in her direction, when the elegant troll with the pearl headdress swum down the tube next to him and seemingly started up a conversation.

 

Rosalyn watched the two of them curiously. Her employer was still a bit of an enigma to her. He seemed to be, well not exactly snooty, more than that, somehow.  

He gave off the impression of being so much more important than other people that he didn't have to remind you of who he was. You just knew, and if you didn't you'd end up seriously hurt.

 

The other trolls in violet had this aura as well, of being so much more important that the other people in their immediate vicinity that they just knew people would fall in line and just do what they said. The few times she had seen people even remotely defiant of Ozainu he had tightened up then lashed out at the person.

 

It would bother her but the first person he'd done that to had been her father who had absolutely had it coming and every other person thus far seemed to, well, not deserve it , certainly not deserve it. Nobody deserved what she'd seen him do to that front desk lady, but well. It was nice to be on the beneficiary side of a bully for once.  Not that she approved of it but, it was… Nice to have someone stick up for her.

 

Rosalyn looked back up at Ozainu. He seemed to be very deep into the conversation the lady troll had started with him. He seemed. A bit .. well on another less dignified troll she would have thought agitated. There was a small but persistent furrow between his eyebrows and his hands were moving in curt lines seemingly to emphasize whatever he was saying. His finns were pinned back but the tips would flick every few seconds.

 

The other troll seemed puzzled and put a hand delicately on Ozainu’s forearm, as if to placate him. He bristled at this and took off down the glass tube. That hadn't gone well. The pretty troll in the headdress followed him, bafflement written all over her face.

 

Rosalyns eyes darted around the larger pool trying to figure out where he would pop up and … wait… there he was. His horns came up first, barbed downwards facing hooks appearing. Then his head quickly followed by the rest of his mass. He stalked over to Rosalyn and stopped a moment to pick up the towel. His normally calm implacable face was dark and thunderous. She quickly packed up Mowgli’s things and stood up.

 

They were clearly leaving and leaving now.

 

The other troll who had apparently pissed him off exited the pool elegantly and stepped over to where Rosalyn was just finishing tucking mowgli into the stroller.

 

Rosalyn noticed that she didn’t so much as drip onto the black marble floor, her elegant swimwear seemed to be entirely waterproof and her hair was still somehow pinned gracefully in elegant loops entwined with the pearls.

 

She started up immediately seemingly picking up from their previous conversation.

“Look Kalala, I understand your position on the lusus farming policies, but I don’t see why you are so passionate about this trans-planetary grub exchange policy. You said you agreed with me on the-”

 

Ozainu violently toweled off his hair and pointedly ignored the lady.

 

The elegant troll sighed. “Alright, I concede. If you do not wish to talk anymore on the subject I will not press it any more. Really you could explain yourself a little more clearly. I don’t see why...” She trailed off as she caught sight of Rosalyn. Her face seemed to brighten.

 

“Ohh my my, why did you not just say you had a human?”

 

Her finns fluttered in excitement. “You should have said! I did not know you were starting a collection! There’s no need to be coy with me Kalala. I was quite the collector myself back in the day, as you know.”

 

The troll woman smiled at Rosalyn, a calculating look in her eye, her voice airy and light. “Oh to the days of conquest~” her eyes raked up and down the petite human “When you could just take natives, if that was what you wanted.”

 

She leaned over to Ozainu and laughed. “I see that despite the moratorium on snatching locals you still managed to find a fine specimen.”She tittered elegantly behind a neatly manicured hand. The pearls woven into her hair jangling slightly, glimmering in the low light and casting fey shadows across her cheeks.

 

“She looks so soft, and look at those pretty eyes. Not for your famous collection I hope? They look so much more handsome in the original settings. I can see why you grabbed her. Really it would have been a crime NOT to take at least one while you were visiting~”

 

Ozainu snapped the towel loudly and wrung it out forcefully. A vein stood out on his bicep and the towel made an ominous creaking noise before he carefully let go.

It was bone dry by the time he turned to the other troll his face seemingly smooth but Rosalyn noticed his claws rending tiny rips in the towel.

 

She stepped back edging behind him. Hopefully this wouldn't get too messy.

 

When he did speak his voice was calm but firm.

 

“The Human is a servant. I purchased it to raised a human grub for me. ” The elegant troll peeked curiously into the stroller and reached out a delicate claw to- Ozainu’s voice continued “-and while she is expendable to an extent the grub is NOT.” Her hand paused and carefully withdrew.

 

Rosalyns face had gone white.

 

The Troll woman's face looked a little put out but not upset. Ozainu turned and continued. “As I said before we need to keep things in balance. The human grub is a part of that.”

 

Her large eyes almost the same shade of violet as Ozainu’s narrowed. “Still playing the long game I see. Well I’ll be watching to see how your new play for “ _diplomacy_ ” panns out.”

 

She turned around in a huff, ornamental pearls and fine gold chain clinking softly. She walked off and as Ozainu was leaving she shot one last comment over her shoulder.

 

“Just a reminder Kalala natives come and go. I suggest you remember your little pet will only keep you warm for~” she made a show of thinking, a claw tapping against her perfectly painted lips “A few dozen sweeps at the most.” she smiled poisonously and tittered, waving as she left.

 

The towel was in shreds.

 

The walk back to the suite was silent. Ozainu seemed annoyed and every step he took was an argument with the floor that he seemed determined to win.

 

Rosalyn kept pace behind him eyes fixed on Mowgli only looking up to make sure she didn't lose sight of her … employer.

                     

He sat across from her a comparatively small table between them. He looked … not ashamed but maybe....  His face still held a bit of the edge it had when he had been talking with the troll woman but the second the doors to the suit had swished closed his face had slackened and he had shot Rosalyn an almost sheepish look before walking quickly to his rooms to change.

 

He sat now shoulders relaxed elbows resting on his knees.

He simply looked at her and waited.

 

Finally when the silence became almost too suffocating she spoke.

 

“You know.” Rosalyn remarked with a forced casual tone. “Humans have a system where a person voluntarily gives their time and expertise to another person in exchange for monetary benefits.”

 

Ozainu nodded his head and seemed to be holding in an eye roll.

 

She fixed him with a cold gaze. “You’ve only purchased my TIME.” she turned away “...nothing else.”

 

Ozainu Looked at her almost pityingly. “Do you have any concept of what Alternian nobility is , like? Poisonous does not even begin to-” he sighed and cut himself off. What was the point, she would never understand.

 

She shrugged and casually took off her earrings. “It's not like I don’t understand.” He raised an eyebrow. “The main opposition to trolls on Earth are those who think of your species as violent war-mongers.”

 

She chuckled humorlessly. “As if we’re any different.”

 

She put her earrings in her purse. “Slavery ONLY officially ended one hundred and sixty eight years ago on our planet. We’ve had more than our share of evil.”

 

“Anyone who tells you that our species is inherently a kind one is a liar.”

 

She sighed and took off her necklace as well. “But just because I understand does not mean that I like NOR condone it.”

 

She looked right at him. Her face impassive and her eyes firey. “I am not your thing. I am not anyone’s thing.”

 

She turned to her room and opened the door. “Goodnight Mr.Kalala.”

 

His eye twitched at that.

 

Right before she closed the door he heard. “Pleasant dreams.”

 

He sighed again. He had forgotten what it was like to deal one on one with someone who thought 168 years was a long time. He didn’t for a second think that what he had said was wrong in the slightest. He had been justified. He was. Really. His reasons for saying those things were completely sound.

 

From his perspective he could have bought any human, new empresses laws or no, but things would be easier in the long run if he could at the very least not pit the human who was going to raise his … son … against trolls.

 

He did afterall need the boy if he was to make sure the balance between their two races wouldn’t tip too far in an unfavorable direction. He would have to brush up on his diplomatic skills if this was going to work.

 

It was going to be a long trip home.

 


	7. Well We're Here, Now What?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things cool down a bit between Ozainu and his new Nanny.  
> They make it home but things are still not settled yet.  
> Can the drones be kept away from Rosalyn's underwear for long?  
> Find out.

 

The rest of the trip to Alternia was fairly uneventful.

Rosalyn had a few more bafflingly one sided conversations with the huge troll, whose name turned out to be Churro. He was occasionally let out of the holding cell and in the few hours it took for him to get thrown back in for attacking somebody he actually managed to be somewhat pleasant company.

Churro held a ball of yellow yarn as Rosalyn knitted. “So there's this guy right?”

Rosalyn nodded and continued to knit. “Mmmhmm?”

Churro flailed his hands excitedly, still clutching the ball of yarn. “He wears a tuxedo! And a mask! They call him tuxedo mask!”

 

Rosalyn paused at that. Well...it's anime after all… “I...see...I hope the rest aren’t named after what they wear..”

Churro made a sort of clicky-warbling sound that she was beginning to learn that meant a troll was excited, if it were lower or had a harsher grating click it would have meant that he was about to fight. Both were sounds she was accustomed to hearing from Churro.

Churro wiggled in his seats. “NAH! They planets in yo solar system! They wear sailor uniforms! And they magic”

Rosalyn shrugged, well if it made him happy. “I can tell how much you love the show.”

Churro continued to make the weird warbly click, the sound punctuated by the soft sounds of Rosalyn’s knitting needles.

“The thing is.” Churro looked like he was a million miles away. “They got so much power and they don’t use it to hurt no one.”

 

Churro’s clicking died down and he leaned against the wall almost somberly. “Up in when the old empress was ‘round and kicking power meant using it against people with no power, feel me?”

 Rosalyn looked at him curiously and nodded.

Churro kneaded the ball of yarn. “The strong up and PROTECTING the weak is a novel fucking thing human lady. Ain’t nobody tell me that's how it could be done ‘fore I saw that shit.”

Churro nodded to himself. “I still get real angry sometimes but I’m trying to be better, I’m really trying human lady and when I do?” He leaned over “I’mma be a superhero. Just like them.”

Rosalyn was touched, she hadn’t even imagined Churro had this side to him. “That's so noble I-”

“Also their skirts are fucking awesome.” Churro chittered and nodded. “Fuck pants.”

Rosalyn rolled her eyes but smiled, well that brief fit of noble-ness didn’t last long, but she meant it when she said-

“Well if it makes you happy then go for it.”

 

 

Ozainu never quite apologized for what he had said by the pool but by the time they landed on Alternia they’d had a few more in depth conversations about what had happened and with the context Rosalyn was coming to understand that what she had perceived as him ignoring her personhood was actually more along the lines of social posturing to an apparently very dangerous political rival.

She still hadn't warmed back up to him but a little of the frost had melted and she couldn't help but hide a smile when she had seen him try and fail to catch Mowgli’s interest with a bright plastic Duck when she was otherwise occupied on the other side of the room.

 Then it was their final day on the ship.

They would be docking soon and Rosalyn was carefully putting together her outfit for departure. Ozainu had told her that It would be odd for her to be seen wearing anything other then her blood color but as humans weren't as strictly bound to troll customs she should try to dress as palely as possibly. This would apparently help to visually tie her to the roll of lusus.

She finished buckling the white boots and adjusted the broad brimmed white sunhat. An off-white sundress was worn over eggshell colored leggings with a white denim jacket over. She felt a bit like a ghost wearing all this white but as she packed Mowgli into the stroller Ozainu presented her with a small box.

She carefully took it and popped it open.

Inside was a pair of, neat violet sea troll colored, pearl earrings. She looked up at Ozainu her head tilted in a question and he huffed quietly, a spark of, something Rosalyn hoped was, amusement in his eyes.

“Lusii will often have the same blood color as their grub. There is often a small tell. A colored feather or a scale. Eyes are often but not always blood colored.” He held her gaze steadily with his ”These also have my sign on them and will tell anyone who gets close enough that you work for me.” The phrase ‘and they won't dare mess with you or I’ll have their eyes out for my collection’ went unsaid but hung in the air like a promise.

Rosalyn nodded solemnly and switched out her mother's old earrings for the ones Ozainu had just given her.

As they walked along the platform to the scuttle buggy that would take them to Ozainu’s home Rosalyn slipped a pair of round dark sunglasses on under the white sunhat. The huge red alternian sun was just setting casting long shadows behind them. Her new earrings and Ozainu’s eyes both flashed in the fading light four small glints of violet.

The Vehicle was sleek and had six pairs of neat pincer like legs that folded down allowing them to climb in. Ozainu sat in the driver's seat and watched with hidden amusement as Rosalyn tried and failed to find a place to buckle the carseat in to. Eventually she gave in and simply held Mowgli’s carry basket in her lap.

Dark drones with violet edging on their carapaces flew over the skuttle buggy and Rosalyn thought she caught a glimpse of familiar packaging. They must be taking their luggage to Ozainu’s home.

The buggy was a surprisingly smooth ride. As there were always at least 2 legs on the ground and they could adjust for any terrain they glided seamlessly along roads.

The moons were rising now and Rosalyn looked out onto an alien city on the distance. Lights were starting to flicker on and she thought she could see something huge and white take flight off one of the tall spires in the distance.

She really was on another world.

To her disappointment they didn't head towards the city but instead they moved off towards the rising moons, on of which was full and ripe a bright berry pink, the other a crescent lime green silver. Ozainu hadn't told her anything about his home other than the fact that he could have anything they needed installed and or added on if the need arose. She was looking forward to seeing it.

The drive was a long one but after some hesitation on her part she asked if there was any music he would like to listen to … um if that would be alright. Ozainu had been focusing on the road but glance at her for a moment before pushing a button on the dashboard. A small compartment popped open on her side of the dashboard and she saw a collection of brightly colored grubs wiggling each in their own little case. He held out a hand and she picked one of the squirmy grubs out at random.

By now she had at least a little familiarity with Alternia’s more organic technology so she didn't pull a face when Ozainu popped the little grub into a slot in the dashboard. It wiggled around for a second before going still and then the pleasant sound of classical music began to play.

She sat with the baby in her lap and listened to the sound of an alien orchestra play as the strange scenery sped by. It was almost soothing the weird dull neon scrub and the rusty colored soil zipping by and her eyelids were just beginning to droop.

The car stopped.

The stop was so abrupt she had to clutch the carrier to her chest to prevent it from flying out of her lap. Mowgli startled by the sudden jolt started crying. She belatedly noticed that Ozainu had put out one large hand to stop it from falling. She blushed and readjusted her grip trying to settle the squealing infant and adjust the carrier at the same time. Ozainu said nothing but pulled his hand back and lowered the buggy to the ground.

She looked out over her sunglasses at an empty beach. The road was empty for as far as she could see in either direction. It was quiet save for the sound of waves lapping the beach and the piercing noise of a baby crying.

She squinted out but there was nothing she could see out on the ocean either. She looked up at Ozainu who was walking out onto the sand. She followed after fervently hoping she wasn't going to be expected to swim out to his home.

He stopped right at the tideline where bits of seaweed and shells littered the sand in a line where the tides had beached them. Rosalyn watched as her employer pulled out his tablet and tapped something onto the screen. He then looked up and out expectantly. She followed his gaze but saw nothing but the dark water lapping at the shoreline and the reflection of the moon's far out by the horizon.

They stood there for a good 5 minutes and Mowgli was just about settled down when she saw it.

Well something. A hump of water was forming out in the distance and was coming towards the shore. She glanced up at Ozainu but he was as implacable as ever. She looked from him to the quickly approaching tidal wave but he stayed calm. She took a tiny step back and was about to ask a question when the wave broke and the first spires of a submarine crested.

The thing rose from the ocean rising from the depths in delicate spires. It was about the size of a large single-family home, little pearly mosaic tiles,( or were they scales?) dusting across the surface and glittering in the light and round little windows. It seemed to be carried delicately by six crab-like legs.

“Aww…” Rosalyn clasped her hands together. “It's so cute~”

She looked to Ozainu to tell him she thought his house was absolutely charming but he was scowling hard at the little pearly crab house. He pushed the button on his tablet more insistently.

 Just then something gold and gleaming sliced through the water and in an action too fast for Rosalyn to process swiped the little crab house off the beach, she watched dumbfounded as the pearly contraption was flung out into the distance and beyond the horizon.

A large tentacle-like structure loomed overhead and slammed into the sand before them, Rosalyn fell back with the shock from the hit but Ozainu stood nonplussed.

The tentacle loomed above, sticking at least 20 feet up out of the sand before bending back down to where it’s source was still under the water. The tentacle was plated with what looked like solid gold scales, silver alien filigree winding across the metal like the roots of trees or ocean currents, streaming and flaring out before spiralling out into complex designs.

The metal groaned and Rosalyn felt that something huge and dome shaped was pulling itself up.

Displaced water gushed onto the sand as a colossal shape rose out of the ocean. It seemed to be more than twenty stories tall and seemed to span the entire cove. Gleaming golden scales shone across the surface of the round organic structure, rippling like water, each of the thousands of scales intricately embossed with silver and what looked like obsidian stones.

Rounded portholes littered it’s sides in ways that reminded Rosalyn uncomfortably of eyes.

Four more absolutely enormous tentacle like structures slithered up out of the ocean two on either side of them. They stilled and then dug themselves into the sand. The huge dome shape was dragged towards them as the tentacles flexed.

Rosalyn had seen some strange things on this alien world  but this was so much larger than anything else she had experienced so far and it was rushing right up towards her.

 

She was going to be crushed!

 

The looming golden mass stopped a scant few feet away from her and Ozainu and she felt the air rush towards her as it stopped. The moons were no longer visible the mass of the thing before her having blotted them out. 

It was eerily dark and she swore she saw one of the huge obsidian portal's flick closed and open again in a heartbeat. Did… did it just wink at her?

Suddenly, like in picture books where the object is hidden in the corner and lines of another object, the thing she was looking clicked into place.

 

An Octopus.

It was an enormous golden metallic octopus.

 

Where the beak might have been on an organic cephalopod huge double arched doors silently opened up for them. Ozainu walked briskly ahead of her and she scrambled to follow, clutching Mowgli in his carry basket  to her chest for the little comfort it brought her.

The baby stared up at the huge structure and burbled. He didn't seem impressed. Rosalyn tried to take that to heart and hesitantly followed Ozainu into the structure. The inside was surprisingly light and spacious. There weren't any obvious lamps or light fixtures but the walls seemed to gently illuminate the rooms and hallways, occasionally pulsing with a brighter light every few minutes as if in time with some huge slow heartbeat.

 The interior was surprisingly cluttered. Most of the walls were covered in large trophies. Huge white presumably stuffed beasts and weapons lined the walls in neat rows, each had a small plaque under or next to it.

They moved past this entryway quickly though Rosalyn tried to read the plaques she passed. They were unfortunately in alternian and her progress with the language wasn't far enough to read anything at a glance.

 She pulled her attention away from the walls and focused on the back of her employer. He walked sedately ahead of her never glancing back but he somehow never walking too fast or pulling too far ahead. He almost seemed to be strolling down the hallways.

 As they passed by an elegant door done up in a deep violet tinted wood he put out a hand to brush the brass handle. The gesture touched Rosalyn. He was at home here. His posture, the easy slow strides he took, even his voice.

 On Earth he had clicked and growled subsonically as he spoke, she had felt him speaking as much as heard him. Then on the ship that had faded a bit too small audible clicks in his voice, precisely timed to emphasize whatever he was saying rather than to emote.

Now he seemed … almost happy.

Jukilo had been nervous and clicked and chirped quite a lot while they had talked, distressed at first, then in a friendly manner when Ozainu was gone. Churro on the ship was a ball of growly, clicky, warbles which she assumed meant he wore his emotions on his sleeve. Even the rather unpleasant sea troll woman with the headdress had warbled and trilled while speaking to Ozainu.

She realized now that he was surprisingly restrained for a troll.

Her train of thought derailed as they passed through a final spacious hallway and entered a huge observatory. The entire room was one huge dome and Rosalyn realized that they were in one of the Octopus's eyes looking out at the ocean. The glass, if it was glass, was tinted but she could still see out clearly. A black shape buzzed overhead and vanished past the huge window.  

Ozainu sat in a large armchair and gestured to a smaller armchair next to him.

Rosalyn hopped up onto it, her legs bobbed a few times and didn't even come close to touching the floor. Mowgli made a squeaky ‘baah’ sort of a noise at the sudden movement but stayed otherwise silent.

They sat like that quietly as Ozainu tapped away at his tablet. Rosalyn was reaching into her purse to get her own tablet when Ozainu finally spoke up.

“The child... Mowgli-” he paused just a moment as if reminding himself of the name, ”I previously set aside a suite of rooms for the infant to grow into. I had tried to prepare for his needs so the basic necessities are there. I had not … prepared for… hired help, therefore if you find the rooms I set aside for … Mowgli unacceptable, I would not find it amiss for you to come to me in a few days with another room in the mansion picked out for your use.”

Rosalyn waited a moment to be sure he had finished speaking. This was the most he had said to her in weeks all together.

“I’m sure I’ll be able to manage in one of the rooms you set by for Mowgli. Really it's for the best that I keep an eye on him at night, er, while we’re sleeping that is. Uhm will we be adopting your um time schedule?” 

Ozainu glanced out at the rising moons, something was zipping around one of the carrier drones.

“You could probably try to maintain your previous sleep cycle but I doubt it would do you any good. The Alternian sun is not safe for most trolls and there are still pockets of daywalkers roaming about. You may be more resilient to the sun’s rays but it is by no means safe and besides... ”

Yes there was definitely something harassing one of the carrier drones. 

“Mowgli will be raised as closely as I can manage to the average troll’s upbringing cycle. If he is to be capable of bridging the gap in understanding between species I want him raised as closely as possible to the Alternian way of life. Humans are indoc-teaching troll children the ways of earth. There has to be some sort of balance or things could go badly for both of our races. He has to be capable of understanding… the Alternian perspective. 

Rosalyn suddenly felt cold. There was something in the way he had said that last sentence. It wasn't … ominous, not really, but there was a depth to what he had just said. It certainly implied more … complicated reasons for-

 A crate smashed into the upper half of the dome showering the side of the submarine with infant onsies and what had to have been half of all of Rosalyn’s underwear purchases. A troll child, looking barely older than eleven to Rosalyn’s eye, dove down into the wreckage and began rummaging through the falling goods.

 Rosalyn was miffed at the prospect of a child going through her dainties, ran over to the window he had smashed the drone into. Next to the huge porthole was a hatch style door that let her clamber out quickly. She was going to give the child such a talking to!

She carried Mowgli outside and Ozainu followed out of mild curiosity. If it was up to him he would simply terrify the child a bit. Maybe snatch an eye and toss the kid into the sea and be done with it, but this promised to be more interesting at least. He had never seen a human turn that particular shade of red before.

The troll child was bent over the pile of clothes, digging through sensible undergarments and muttering to themselves as they threw the occasionally lacy things to the sand. Ozainu might have run to the port hole that had opened out near the troll, but now he walked slowly his footsteps crunching softly in the sand.

The child looked even smaller out here. Rosalyn could see now that it was wearing a huge black leather jacket with an out of place english phrase on the back spelling out “PORCO ROSSO”. The kid looked frustrated and was growling in the back of the throat in what would presumably be threatening one day but to Rosalyns ears sounded like someone trying to sand down a flute.

Rosalyn stood over the child their jetpack puttering, she put her hands on her hips indignantly.

“And just what do you think you’re doing young man?”

The child turned and there was a human, just like in the animes! His eyes widened “YOU’RE A-”

Rosalyn snatched the child’s ear in a gesture her grandmother did a hundred times before and made the child rise to his feet.

“OWW!!” The troll child squirmed “QUIT IT THAT’S MY EAR!”

Rosalyn looked the child hard in the eyes “What do you think you’re doing flying around and stealing things??” She shook the child gently to emphasize her point. “Does your MOTHER know you’re here? You could’ve gotten hurt!”

Ozainu paused at that. Really? The child was stealing her things and this was what she chose to prioritise? Ozainu’s right eyebrow was certainly getting a workout.

The troll child hunched in a little at the mention of their lusus,their eyes darting back and forth . “What! Uhhh N-No….”

Rosalyn waived her other hand angrily and continued “How do you think THEY would have felt if you died fighting robots? Did you even think of that?”

There were tears in the child’s eyes now and they rocked slightly back and forth. “...no….”

Rosalyn stooped down on the sand to look in the eyes of the child who was hanging their head and sniffling. "Where is your mother, I’m going to take you right to her.”

Just then a long white beast slithered out of the trees. They were covered in white fur and had a thin face like a grey-hound or a weasel, long tendrils came from the sides of their face and swept back in long arches behind them like a catfish, their body was like an exaggerated otter, overly long with short legs ending in fluffy paws.

She looked out onto the scene, the broken boxes, the other lusus holding their son’s ear and the large seadweller in the background. What trouble has their son gotten into now?

They approached cautiously, eying the seadweller nervously, but the other lusus stood with their back to him which either meant they were stupid or knew he wouldn’t attack.

They approached the other lusus as their son sniffled in their grasp. The other lusus wasn’t like any lusus they had seen before, they were almost troll-shaped but too small, they had big round black eyes and wore a large hat. They had a white floom like a jellyfish that looked soft, perhaps they were poisonous like a jelly fish? They almost looked like those things in the cartoons their son liked to watch but their grub had explained that those were make-believe.

Perhaps they were from the southern sections?

Rosalyn looked up at the creature, their tendrils whipping the air around her, inspecting her. “I take it he’s yours?”

The creature didn’t understand the soft almost musical dialect but from the way they motioned to their son understood the query.They chittered and nodded. Rosalyn motioned over her shoulder to the broken crates a hand on her hip at the drones that were still hovering awkwardly. “You son was fighting robots and trying to steal our things.”

The lusus huffed at their son and looked to the wreckage the other lusus had motioned to. Fighting drones of all things?? They observed the spots of purple on the other lusii’s ears. And to steal from a seadweller’s lusus nonetheless!

The lusus retrieved their phone and tapped out a response. “If damage I pay.”

Rosalyn shook her head and dusted off one of the onesies. “Not damaged, just dirty.”

The other lusus seemed to understand that there was no real damage done and looked over at what the other lusii was holding. It was a grub garment striped in purple with a little whale stitched onto the front.

The lusus cooed and chittered over the onesie and put a paw to their mouths, smiling with their tendrils fluffed out. They took out their phone, scrolling through until they reached a picture.

“Aww!” Rosalyn looked at the picture on the other lusii’s phone and put a hand to her mouth. The picture was of a grub with the same horns as the troll child before them in a basket with a ribbon around their head. “That's so cute!!”

The lusus chirred and nodded. The troll child sensing death was not an immediate threat quickly shifted to mortified and tried to grab at his mother's phone. “MOM!!”

Rosalyn addressed the lusus. “Alright. Keep them out of trouble.”

The lusus nodded and snuffled and licked Rosalyn as a goodbye. They picked up their son by their shirt collar and skittered off into the woods. They were lucky that it was another lusus that found their son. 

Who knows what would have happened if it had been the seadweller that had gotten there first?

Ozainu looked on boredom quickly taking hold. Had his lusus ever been that obnoxious? He almost felt a spark of sympathy for the now thoroughly embarrassed child as he watched the lusus drag their child off into the trees at the edge of the beach and the cries of embarrassed offspring faded into the night. 

He had held back for the singular reason that he had been curious to see how protective Rosalyn was of her charges possessions. A lusus should be able to protect their trolls belongings to some extent and while she had gone about it oddly and her priorities had been a bit questionable, she had managed to send the intruder off packing in good time. Another small concern he had fell away. He certainly wouldn't have thought of contacting the child’s lusus. If it had been him who got there first… well. The child was young. Eyes grew back at that age didn't they? Anyway the important thing was that she had kept his ward safe and that was what counted.

 He watched her valiantly gather her underthings into the remains of the box and when he had determined she really didn't know he deliberately cleared his throat. Rosalyn jumped. She’d forgotten he’d followed her, and of course he was watching her fold and stack her underwear, because this really couldn’t get any worse could it.

She tried to think fast and say something intelligent and stand up for her decision to talk to the child’s mother instead of calling the authorities.

This came out as “Uhhhh it might take a few trips to get everything inside….” perfect. Her embarrassment was total.

Ozainu simply pointed up at a new undented drone that was hovering over the wreckage patiently waiting for Rosalyn to move so it could continue its job.

 

Once more Rosalyn’s quick wit and silver tongue saved the day.

 

“Uhhh .. oh … um okay then.”

 

Could this get anymore embarrassing. As the drone buzzed down and neatly picked up the crate a single pair of dark panties peeled off the pile and fell with rather impressive timing right onto Ozainu’s left horn. Well embarrassment was like that wasn't it. If it lingered too long in one place it tended to spread.

Ozainu stood there rigid staring straight ahead.

Rosalyn didn't know wether to laugh or cry. Instead she picked up Mowgli from where she had placed him by the sub entrance and walked rather stiffly back into the submarine, making sure not to look in Ozainu’s direction.

Maybe if she didn't acknowledge it the entire thing wouldn't have happened. 

A few seconds later Ozainu followed her into the ship, his head thankfully free of underwear. For one awful second Rosalyn almost asked him for the underwear back, after all it wasn't like she was going to have an easy time finding more in her size here, but she bit her cheek and stopped herself. No way was she going to make this more awkward than it already was.

Dinner was a fairly quiet affair, Ozainu ate what looked like some kind of thick cut sashimi with a thick brightly colored paste on the side and Rosalyn microwaved some easy mac. 

She sat next to Ozainu at a very ornate table that looked like it had been violently sawed in half at one point and gilded back together. She fed Mowgli a bottle of formula and snatched bites of the quickly solidifying macaroni as Ozainu went over the general layout of the enormous sub on a small holographic screen.

In the very center of the massive complex was the greenhouse which was confirmed to be the alien plants that she could see from the glass surrounding the dining room, some green plants but mostly a bright alien brownish-gold with deep blue and purple leaves, strange red oblong fruits hanging from the boughs of some particularly large trees.

Under the greenhouse the engine was housed that powered the eight mechanical tentacles that splayed out in all directions.

It was divided into eight wings to match the eight tentacles, each wing curved along the large inner dome that was the greenhouse and rose for 24 stories.

She counted four kitchens, large connected pantries, ten bathrooms, five libraries and “media centers” which she assumed were high-tech tv rooms, the suite of rooms that belonged to Mowgli and rows upon rows of uncategorized rooms.

She was beginning to droop around the half hour mark, really who needed that many trophy rooms?, when there was a pause stilted enough to snap her out of the half doze she had been slipping into.

Ozainu had paused finger hesitating over a darkened patch on the holographic map.

“I think that should be sufficient for tonight.” He made to turn the map off but Rosalyn was curious.

“Wait what’s in that blacked out area?” she stifled a yawn and straightened in her chair.

Ozainu’s voice was, surprisingly, gentler than it had been all day.

“You wouldn't care for what is in that room. Do not enter it and there will be no problems. Understood.”

Rosalyn considered pushing the subject but it had been a long day, she was tired. She nodded and stifled another yawn. It could wait another day. 

Ozainu seemed satisfied and tucked the map away before standing. “Do you believe you can find your rooms unassisted?”

Rosalyn debated on standing strong and insisting on finding the rooms herself but decided to be honest. She shook her head and gathered the sleeping Mowgli into his stroller.

After 15 minutes of navigating the spacious but twisting mansion Ozainu left her at the door and silently padded off to do whatever it was he had to do now that he no longer needed to guide her around the ship.

Exhausted both mentally and emotionally Rosalyn stumbled into the suite of rooms he had put aside for Mowgli. There weren't any beds set up but glory of glories her luggage was here. Lugged in and neatly deposited by the swifter transport drones. She tottered in and carefully deposited Mowgli into his crib. She dug through the luggage for a nightgown but gave up and settled for an oversized t-shirt and shorts.

She barely managed to brush her teeth before checking to make sure mowgli wasn't messy or in need of feeding. He was thankfully asleep.

She slumped. It had been a long day… night… whatever.

She curled up on one of the huge overstuffed chairs a blanket pulled over her and she was asleep as soon as she shut her eyes.

The submarine slowly swam through the currents leaving the shore and making its way to the safer depths of the ocean. The last glint of gold flashed in the waning moonlight as it sunk down and deep in heart of the Octopus shaped sub Ozainu sighed and poured himself a glass of something sweet and incredibly condensed. It had been a long night.

He absently fingered one of the numerous deep grooves in his desk left by his own claws in some forgotten lapse of temper. 

The nanny. Rosalyn.

What was he to make of her. She was everything he could have expected from humans. Perfect for raising his to be diplomat … son through infanthood. He liked her though. She was almost entirely defenseless. Both physically and mentally but … no, not quite. She had showed flashes of backbone on the ship. Well it made her charming rather than insolent. Which was in itself odd as he absolutely hated anyone below him in rank mouthing off.

She was human though, and humans always seemed to have one more exception hiding up their sleeves.

She was such a tiny thing his upper arm was as big around as her entire waist and she still kept up with him, or ,well, tried too.

She was respectful. That was the important thing. She wouldn't turn against him. He’d seen enough of her by now to know. She didn't have it in her to betray him in the long run.

He sipped his drink and thought back to that first night on the ship. Of her sitting dwarfed in that chair watching her planet vanish into the stars. He fell asleep to the image of stars swirling in her eyes.

 


	8. The Calm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosalyn gets her garden started and starts a list. A step stool is definitely a must.  
> Why are all these aliens so darn tall.

Rosalyn woke up the next morning..umm not morning, start of the next night? Evening... Wow she was going to have to get used to that.

Absentmindedly looking out a window she watched a school of tiny pale bioluminescent fish swim past her window. She was going to to have to get used to that as well, those fish had altogether more eyes per individual then she was used to.

Mowgli was still sleeping soundly in his crib and she smiled down at him, she’d let him sleep in. Getting a notebook and pencil she got started on a list. She would have to find the kitchen and the bathroom, she had been too tired to explore much last night and those were both very necessary things. The food that she had brought with them should last for at least a month but she should really start planting at the greenhouse Ozainu had mentioned before.

“Map of ship/home” was written at the top of the page.  
She took out the seed packets she had bought and laid them out onto the floor to take stock. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkin, parsley-

Why had she gotten parsley? Who the hell needed parsley?

“Find recipes that use parsley” was scribbled onto the list.

Anywho.

She found a bathroom, the tiles on the floor were mother of pearl and gold about the size of pennies that were arranged into the mosaic image of a sprawling octopus. The sink was a ridiculously sized reclaimed clam shell, the inside gleaming mother of pearl, and located at roughly head height for her.

“A stepping stool” was very definitely added to the list.

There was a large tub sunk into the floor that was large enough for Ozainu to lay down comfortably in which meant that Rosalyn could practically do laps in it. A large golden spigot in the shape of a stylized sea serpent with obsidian eyes fed into the tub.

She frowned down at the tub. That was far too large for everyday use… there had to be a shower or-

She searched the bathroom and eventually found a golden octopus on the wall that she had first thought was decoration or some sort of clothing rack, but under further examination found that pulling the long arching jointed tentacles did different things in the room, one dimmed the lighting, the next worked like the switch in the cabin on the ship and turned the long curved wall by the tub opaque and then completely clear.

The greenish light filtering down from the surface of the ocean shifted slightly dappling the room as large oddly shaped schools of pale fish swam by the window.

With the next tentacle she pulled a large shower head dropped from the ceiling, bright and gleaming..

Perfect!

Or at least it was until she realized that the pearly, tear-drop shaped handle that dropped down with it that must have controlled the water was much too high for her to reach. She squinted at the problem for a moment but paused when she heard Mowgli wake up and start to cry.

She rushed back to Mowgli’s room.

Now that she was awake enough to really look at her surroundings she noticed that Mowgli’s room was actually quite…well it was...

There was no way to get around it or say it in a nicer way, it was just ugly. Plain and simple.

Bare pale gray walls, barely anything but a large chair and Mowgli’s crib.

She really was going to have to have a talk with Ozainu about this. There was utilitarian and then there was prison like. Maybe she could paint the walls a cheerier color, put up some colorful pictures, something.

“Paint” was added to the list with an added afterthought of “brushes”.

 

Ozainu woke up as the blazing light of noon faded towards twilight and pulled himself up smoothly out of the large pool he slept in when he was at home.  
The pool was lined with amethyst and a dark metal that might have been iron or something altogether more alien, as it had remained unrusted ever since he has installed it. The effect was mostly for Ozainu’s eyes only, as the sopor slime that filled it turned the elegant work murky to any observer not actually inside the pool.

Green semi translucent sopor slime dripped off him and he slipped into the revolving porthole that led directly to the ocean. A brisk twilight swim always woke him up properly and it had the added benefit of washing off the days sopor slime.

Ozainu lazily swam past the window adjacent to the rooms he had given to Mowgli and Rosalyn and spotted her in the ablution block.

After changing Mowgli and giving him a bottle, she had packed a small bag of both of their respective shampoos and some soap and taken Mowgli to the ridiculously extravagant bathroom. Bathing Mowgli was easy in the large clam shell sink and he gleefully splashed in the sudsy water, burbling as Rosalyn gently washed his hair.

Ozainu watched and was not for the first time glad he had hired someone to take care of all that baby nonsense. Troll wrigglers at least had the coordination to feed and clean themselves. Human infants really were grubs.

Soon enough Mowgli was washed and dried and in a new clean onesie that had a little bear on the belly, gumming on a brightly colored set of plastic toy keys.

Now for that darned handle.

In one of the side rooms there was a broom, she unscrewed the head of the broom and weighted the pole in her hands, yes this will do. Next she retrieved a metal hanger. She returned to the bathroom and used her teeth to undo the twisted metal. She straightened out the wire until only the hook remained. She then wrapped the wire around handle of the broom, securing the metal tightly around the wood until she had a hook on a pole.

Ozainu watched completely baffled. What the blazes was she doing?

Perfect. She hoisted the pole and hooked the handle and pulled the chain. Water spurted forth from the serpent’s head and she smiled to herself. Success!

She put a hand under the spray to check the temperature. There didn’t seem to be any way to change the temperature but it was pleasantly warm.

Ozainu squinted. What was she doing now with the boot cleaner?

She gathered her shampoo and started to strip.

Well that sealed it aliens were weird.

Rosalyn looked out of the large window to the passing sealife. She squinted. Something was out there and it was definitely bigger than a jellyfish.

A large shape tore past.

She sighed. It was only a shark. Poor thing has a bloody nose.

 

Punching the shark hadn’t cleared his head but it had certainly made Ozainu feel better.

So he punched another shark.

She was just a tiny wriggler sized alien lusus who was so eerily pale as to vaguely remind him of a rainbow drinker. He absently thought of the rainbow drinker he had taken as a black romantic partner 50 sweeps ago. She had been tall and broad shouldered with dart shaped horns and lovely skin that glowed in the night like nothing he had seen before.  
Compared to her the little drab human was …

 

He punched a third shark.

 

Frustrated and vaguely annoyed at himself he made his way back to his rooms and dressed for the night ahead.

Making his way down to the nutrition block he was only a little surprised to see Rosalyn already there. Mowgli was sitting in a highchair mashing something green all over his face while she was sitting at the counter eating grain circles with milk and going over a tablet with the holographic map of the ship he had showed her the night before. He carefully did not notice her damp hair and stalked over to the refrigerator and pulled out something to eat.

Rosalyn hummed and chuckled the sound reverberating musically. She smiled just a bit as she wiped Mowgli’s face with a cloth. Mowgli cooed at her and flapped his arms uncoordinated in happy circles.

They really were like birds.

He sat down and started to eat some leftover shark.

Rosalyn chewed another bite of her own breakfast before she started speaking. “In the greenhouse. Is there a plot I can use ready? I wouldn’t want to clear any plants out without your permission and I don’t really know which ones are valuable or dangerous.”

He looked down at his suddenly very interesting slab of shark meat. “There should be an empty plot on the northern side that will be large enough for your needs.”

Her face lit up in a startlingly bright unguarded smile of genuine pleasure, and she wrote something down in a notebook. “Alright. Plot on the northern side. Thank you!”

Ozainu noted how different her face looked with a real smile on it. Most of the smiles he had seen had been polite and socially required or small fragile things that tugged gingerly at the corners of her mouth.

Ozainu mentally shook himself. Stabbing a fork into the slab of watery pinkish meat in front of him, he began viciously slicing it into neat slivers “.Of course it is ... no trouble.”

Rosalyn smiled again, bright and genuine, then started to spoon feed Mowgli, cooing with encouragement when he got whole bites of baby paste into his mouth, wiggling in his high chair with glee.

Watching her Ozainu felt… odd.  
Like he was watching something almost private or no private wasnt exactly the feeling, it was like he had peeled back a curtain expecting to see someone sleeping only to find them sobbing into a pillow. He had been expecting … something calm and matter of fact and gotten something unexpectedly … intense, emotional.

Watching her care for the chi- Mowgli. It was … it was like turning a corner to see a younger him being gently rocked to sleep in the many arms of his lusus. Child care was something you experienced not something you did yourself. Watching it take place made him feel vaguely voyeuristic.

He shoved a slice of shark meat into his mouth and grimaced. It was almost time to get some fresh supplies this shark was clearly off and giving him a bad case of melancholy.

 

  
After deftly putting together a baby bouncer for Mowgli to play in while she worked she packed up her seeds, some heavy twine, some scissors and a large spoon from the kitchen. Actually it was just a regular spoon it was just Ozainu-sized, which is to say that everything is Ozainu sized because this is Ozainu’s house.

Anyways after wheeling Mowgli down to the Greenhouse she quickly found the promised lot. Dull-gold tree boughs swung in wide elegant arches above her and Mowgli’s heads. The scrub beyond the clearing was a dull pink with complex orchid-like white blooms the size of her head. Tiny little neon green birds, or at least she would have called them birds if they didn’t have moth-like wings, fluttered through the canopy.

She put on her sun hat with the air of a general preparing for war and got to work.

She found a dry tree branch discarded off to the side and she used the sharp bands of steel that connected the glass panels of the greenhouse together. Scraping one end of the bough on the sharp edge of the steel to sharpen it.

She dug down into the dirt, making long rows through the clearing. Mowgli jangled his toy keys and bounced in his bouncer as Rosalyn carefully put each seed properly spaced in the rows. Lettuce, carrots, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, squash…

Down and down until every seed had been covered. She put the seed packets on little sticks in front of each row so she could remember what it was.

Mowgli gurgled and started to cry.

Rosalyn picked Mowgli up and he started to nuzzle to her chest. “I see you’re hungry then?” Rosalyn laughed and took a bottle from her bag. “You actually do very well entertaining yourself…” She stroked the side of his soft tiny face as he murmured and suckled. “You probably had to spend a lot of time alone wherever it was you came from…”

She turned her attention to her newly planted, dry, garden. “Now Mowgli how are we going to get all of these watered by ourselves?”

Just then something beeped and water started to spray down on them.

“Of course.” Rosalyn laughed to herself and Mowgli watched transfixed and baffled as little drops touched his cheeks. “Of course he has a sprinkler system.”

Rosalyn stood in the artificial rain and it was strange that in a locked box under an alien ocean, here she felt freer than she ever felt with access to the whole earth.

When the brief artificial bout of indoor weather had passed she turned her attention back to the garden. She had been soaked by the rain but didn't really mind. It was warm in the room and she had sheltered Mowgli under a huge leaf easily twice as large as an end table.

She sat and absently dug her bare toes into the dirt under her feet.

The garden was now well under way she was due for a break.

She laid back and stared up at the exotic foliage up above. When was the last time she had really laid back on grass?

Even back on earth her parents had rarely taken her to parks or to observatories.  
Laying back on the slightly scratchy damp grass she remembered something from her childhood.

A flash of normal yellow sunlight in a neat orderly park.

Her mother sitting on a bench not far off. She was never supposed to leave her mother's line of sight and she could feel her mother looking up from her newspaper every so often to shoot her a warning look.

She had been watching an older boy dig in the rose bushes. He had worn sturdy overalls and a baseball cap.

She still remembered the bright orange of the baseball cap against his short buzzed hair.

When she had asked him what he was doing he had shot her a smile and explained he was helping his father who worked for the park. He had explained to her the names of the roses to her. First in spanish then in english.

Little Rosalyn had been fascinated. She wanted to sit there forever listening to this cool older kid in his dirty sneakers tell her the names of flowers in another language.

It was one of her happier memories of her childhood. A warm sunny afternoon in the park. A kind voice lisping slightly as she dug her fingers into the warm dirt, helping to fill in a hole.

But even in memories the good things in her life were always brief.

She tried to cling to that bright happy moment but like everything in her life up until a month ago her father intruded and dragged her away.

He was supposed to meet them there at the park. She remembered that now. The park was halfway between the school and his work so her mother would sometimes take her there to meet her father after school so they could all walk home together. He had grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the nice boy over to her scowling mother. Her mother had looked down at her upset and Rosalyn could remember the hurt bafflement she had felt.

She remembered the look on her parents faces. It was a look she would unfortunately become used to.

Disgust and disappointment.

She remembered the walk home. Each of her parents had a steel grip on a hand, her short legs had been unable to keep up with their longer ones. Her mother and father had practically dragged her her feet lifting off the ground every couple of steps. A painful twisted mockery of the idyllic happy family.

Her mother had started to speak clearly wanting to lecture but her father had told her to wait until they got home.He had really laid into her when she had gotten home. She remembered his face. Well. Maybe not his face that particular time. She just remembered his face whenever he lectured her. It was always the same, every time.

He had gone on and on about how she shouldn't have been talking to “that boy” how he “wasn't their sort” and how he was apparently just a “dirty” “wet back” “gardener’s kid” who should have known better then to dirty her with his filthy hands.

That had been bad enough.

It was when her father had started saying in that tight vicious voice how bad she had made him look and how selfish she was for rolling around in the dirt and how it reflected poorly on her parents and on and on and on.

She remembered she had cried but that hadn't made a difference. It never made a difference he’d just . kept . going.

Rosalyn put a hand over her eyes and sighed.

That was in the past. It was all in the past. Her father was in the past. She had watched Ozainu lift him up by the neck and it had dawned on her, in that terrifying moment, how small her father really was. She had looked down at him there on the floor and noticed for the first time the wrinkled around the corners of his eyes, the sag of his jowls, the thinning of his hair.

He was just a man.

Just an aging out of shape lawyer whose only weapon had been his ability to hurt her with his words. For a second her thoughts skittered over something deep and uncomfortable she remembered Ozainu as he had brought a claw closer and closer to her father’s eye. The look on his face had been ...

A noise twitched her off that train of thought.

She dug her fingers into the damp ground under her and flexed her toes. She felt the dampness of her clothing sticking to her and the humidity of the air. Grounding her to the moment. She glanced over at Mowgli.

He was beginning to get fussy, his face scrunched, small whiny cries beginning to pick up. That was the noise. She stuck her legs straight up in the air and then swung them down forcefully using the momentum to neatly pop upright in one snapping movement.

She brushed off her back and picked up Mowgli.

It was time for a snack, maybe some educational television for Mowgli. She could leave him to sesame street for an hour or two while she took a crack at decorating his room a bit. She made her way haltingly to the kitchen getting lost twice before stepping into the main dining area she had almost passed out in the night-day before.

She dug into the industrial sized pantry Ozainu had dumped the food crates into and pulled out some canned soup and a box of crackers. She had to climb a bit to reach the cabinets, her lithe frame feather light on the thick marble countertop.

She had set Mowgli up with the tablet and was about to dig into her lunch when Ozainu walked in. From her time with him thus far she would categorize his current mood as thoughtful. His face was as high up and barren of emotion as ever but he seemed lost in thought as he stared straight ahead barely acknowledging her as he sat at the table and pulled out his own tablet.

Not wanting to disturb him but not wanting to be rude either she debated with herself before plucking up the courage and asking “Is there something on your mind?”.

She then hunched in a little out of habit. Ozainu was proving to be a fairly predictable person when it came to his moods but she still half expected harshness or to simply be ignored.

He looked up at her and the look in his eyes turned calculating. He glanced from his tablet to her to Mowgli and a slight chill went up her spine. He looked back down at the tablet and swiped up to an email. He then handed her the tablet. She cautiously took it in both hands, his tablet was sized for him so it was about the size of a lunchtray. She read the email.

Shello Ozainu Kalala!  
I’m shore by now that you know that the trans-planetery lusus experiment was a )(UG-----E SUCS----ESS! The first wave of grubs we sent over are growing up )(ealthy and )(appy! This means that the 2econd part of the experiment is ready for shiplimentation. When I discussed some of the posibubblelities with the conch-cil you seamed quite open.

Here is what I want you to do.

Find trolls who will do shell on earth.  
The first few trolls I sent there to manage the grubs have settled in. I know that you met one of the civil serventerrorists and since I didn't get any news back of you injuring him I’ll take that as a glowing recommendation of his conchpetence!  
Your fishtory as a recruiter and task master proseads you so I expect nothing less that ex-shell-elent results!  
We put on a brave front but the grub overpopulation issue is teetering on crisis. The task I give you is urgent so find me trolls who are adaptable and open minded. We need walk stubs on the ground pronto. You will be the judge and jury on this I have several others perching files for possible earth diplomats and grub transporters but you are the recruiter for the top level jobs!

I’m shore you will do swimmingly!

Your empress, The imperial BENEVOLENC-------E

Rosalyn glanced back up at Ozainu, who was studying her like she was a brightly colored fish in an aquarium. She shifted a bit in her seat uncomfortable with his eery direct stare. She liked to think she was getting used to trolls but she still had the occasional burst of uncanny valley when one would over extend a limb when stretching or when Ozainu blinked his second set of eyelids, thin almost transparent membranes that went across the eyes sideways.

In an entirely unintentional response Rosalyn blinked twice in quick succession.

Ozainu Blinked his aquatic eyelids again.

Rosalyn Double blinked once more.

This would have continued for some time if mowgli getting hungry, hadn't started up fussing, snapping the two adults out of an almost trancelike blinking contest.

Trying to appear unaffected she cleared her throat and passed the tablet back to him.

 

“Well it seems like something you would uhm- enjoy … ”

 

Ozainu nodded and did his best to pretend the last 30 seconds hadn't been spent in an incredibly uncomfortable blinking contest.

Rosalyn was beginning to get nervous and was considering asking another question or coughing or falling out of her chair dramatically, anything really to break the oppressively awkward silence when he spoke.

“Of course I will take the position.” He paused and looked back to her. “You know most trolls have never seen an actual human outside of a screen.” He grimaced, “and most probably focused on the… animated humans.”

Rosalyn followed the train of thought “So you would want me to come along.”

Ozainu nodded. “Yes. I would make sure to keep you and the ch-Mowgli behind glass walls at first, for safety reasons,” He looked over to Mowgli, “Keeping him back perhaps until the candidates have proved themselves capable of interacting with you to a satisfactory degree.”

Rosalyn Looked down into her rehydrated tuna salad and pushed some of the mush around with a fork. She hummed tunelessly to herself and looked back up to Ozainu. Who was still staring at her. He blinked and she quickly looked back down at the tuna salad.

“Well If you think it would be a good idea... and you’re sure Mowgli would be safe … I don’t see why not.”

Ozainu nodded and broke the uncomfortable tension that had been building. “Very well I shall compile a list of possible candidates tonight and we can begin the interviews as soon as the day after tomorrow. I suggest you wear something more … overtly human to the interviews. I want their reactions to the genuine article.”

He then began furiously typing something into his tablet, which thankfully now seemed to be holding most of his attention.

Rosalyn waited to see if he had any clarifications on what was … “overtly human” but he seemed engrossed and to her relief didn't look up again or blink at her. She let out a tiny sigh, well this was certainly turning out to be an interesting week, and dug into her lunch.


	9. Human social niceties and other fun on a human military base

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ozainu and Rosalyn travel to the human military base on Alternia to interview troll candidates for positions on Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took forever to update! All of the parts of the series are interconnected and chapters have to happen at the right time or else there will be spoilers for other parts of the series. This chapter actually interconnects a lot with Starship Skaia! We will also be using a couple of characters here for upcoming mini-fics.
> 
> There is a new tumblr blog for this series called "The New Alternia" at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/thenewalternia We will be posting illustrations for the series (some for chapters and mini fics not out yet heckin spoilers yo) as well as chapter updates and extras! Give us a follow for sneak peaks and heckin insights my dude.
> 
> Once again thank CyanideOreo for her beautiful illustrations! She also has an art blog on tumblr at Cyanideoreo.tumblr.com

 

Ozainu brought her to a military base. She walked behind him, looking powerful in his full military uniform, she carried Mowgli and trotted to keep up with his long strides. Trolls and human men worked in the area, going about their own business.

When Rosalyn was spotted however an immediate change went through the workers.

Human men stopped their work to stare at her, one man dropped his wrench absentmindedly and cursed when it dropped on his foot. A couple that had been driving a jeep accidentally crashed into a barrel, the driver preoccupied as she briskly walked past.

Ozainu noticed, looking from the men back to Rosalyn in question.

“I’m probably the first female they’ve seen in quite a while.” Rosalyn whispered, quietly enough for only Ozainu to hear.

She seemed guarded, her shoulders slightly hunched, stuck between not wanting to look any of them in the eye and being hyper aware of where each one of them were.  An odd whistle came from the crowd and a shiver went up Rosalyn’s spine, her mouth pressed into a hand line, her hands balled up into fists.  Ozainu had no idea what the odd noise meant but could see how tense it made Rosalyn, he unconsciously stepped closer to her.

“Oh for heaven’s sakes!” A gruff voice cut through the air. “Have none of you rascals ever been taught the proper way to treat a lady?”

They both turned to see who Ozainu recognized as the human general of the facility. A wrinkled face peered kindly at them, a grey handlebar mustache curling with a smile. They wore the traditional human green military uniform, a myriad of medals glinting from their front. They walked with a slight limp, an ornately carved walking stick clicking across the metal floor as they went. 

“If you can’t handle being around a woman!” The man shook his stick at the crew “Then go back to your bunks and put in for return to Earth!”

The man then turned to them and bowed.

To Rosalyn?

Ozainu looked on bewildered as the man bowed to Rosalyn lowly, a flush coming to Rosalyn’s cheeks. He took her slender hand gently and kissed her knuckles, Rosalyn put a hand to her mouth to suppress a laugh. He stood back up and looked at her with twinkling green eyes “Welcome to the joint human and Alternian military base! I am General Harley!”

General Harley smiled and looked over the little bundle in Rosalyn’s arms where Mowgli murmured and raised his little fists sleepily.

Ozainu watched fascinated as the general seemed to just melt. A couple of other highly decorated humans that the general had been traveling with, also lost their composure, their eyes going soft and moving closer to peek in at the infant.

A chorus of soft “d’awwws” came from the gruff military men.

One of the other men, a Colonel from what Ozainu could observe from the alien uniform looked from Rosalyn to Ozainu with curiosity. “Are you two-”

“No!” Rosalyn answered a bit too quickly, a blush making itself home on her face again “I’m just the uh...the nanny.”

“Ah!” the other human answered and smiled at her warmly, he presented a hand to her and Rosalyn took it with a smile. They shook hands, up and down, Ozainu noted that he had been doing it wrong this entire time and that Rosalyn had not corrected him. The man brushed back a lock of blonde hair out of his face and chuckled “I am Colonel David Peterson.”

Rosalyn nodded in a friendly way “Rosalyn Briar”

Ozainu watched the two humans. For some reason that he wasn’t going to examine, he absolutely disliked the other human on sight. He was broad where Rosalyn was slender, light golden hair in contrast to her dark hair, tan where she was pale, bright green eyes in contrast to her dark brown ones. They contrasted just so, like two sides of a coin.

Like a pair.

Ozainu cleared his throat and the human jumped, having seemingly forgotten Ozainu’s existence, which was a first for Ozainu if he was being honest with himself.

The Colonel smiled just as winningly up at Ozainu and raised a hand “Sorry there chap! Didn’t mean to forget you! But then again nobody can expect to be the center of attention when there’s a baby around can they?”

Ozainu thought back to the first time he had actually seen a young of his own race. He didn't remember being one of course, as troll memories from before they pupate tended to be more emotion and sensory based than clear linear pictures. 

He had been tagging along with some older trolls, desperate to belong to the group when they had stumbled upon a screaming grub stuck in a tree. It had been cerulean. Very small and squirmy. It had hissed at them and tried to bite but one of the older trolls in the group had deftly grabbed it by its tiny horns. 

He remembered the rest of the group had lit up all of them chattering and excited and he had to admit the barbeque later that night had been wonderful. He had only been allowed a leg but it had been pretty good and the feeling of sharing a meal with cool older trolls who he hoped would be his friends was a precious thing. 

The mental gymnastics that he had to pull to go from cherished childhood meal that was an integral part of the group bonding process to PROTECT THIS LIVING THING IT IS IMPORTANT … DO NOT EAT nearly sprained something but he smiled a bit pained and shook the human’s hand and said something he hoped was fatherly and polite.

Introductions out of the way they walked to General Harley’s office, in a gesture of human formality Ozainu didn’t recognize the General offered his elbow to Rosalyn who laid a hand on his arm gently. They walked arm in arm that way, chatting as they went.

The general’s office was furnished in a dark wood, the walls decorated with the stuffed carcasses of Earth beasts that Ozainu was unfamiliar with.

“You know you look just like my late wife!” The general mused to Rosalyn, handing her a framed picture from his desk. Looking over Rosalyn’s shoulder Ozainu could see that it was a picture of the general as a younger man, twirling a young wild-haired woman who seemed to be laughing as she was spun. The general wore his military uniform and the woman wore a long white dress and a veil.

Rosalyn smiled and hummed, her eyes going soft. The general pointed out more pictures.

A girl with long black hair and green eyes smiled up from a picture, little round glasses on the little girl’s face. “That’s Jade! She’s all grown up now! She’s working on her fourth PHD! She is a fantastic scientist! Earth's finest!”

In another picture a little green-eyed boy was held by the woman who the general had identified as his “wife” she looked down at the little boy and smiled as they sat in what looked like an archaeological site. “That’s my grandson Jake! He’s following his dreams to become an archaeologist! We’re all proud of him!”

A little boy who seemed to be about two years old looked up with big blue eyes from another photo, he wore a blue raincoat with little rabbit ears and bright yellow rain galoshes. A little blue eyed girl was next to him holding his hand in a similar rabbit-eared coat, only white where his was blue. “John and Jane!”

In the next photo a blue eyed man and a lilac-eyed blonde woman smiled at the camera, a little pudgy baby between them “That’s John all grown up with his wife Rose and my great-grand daughter Casey! They just got married and already a little one!”

Rosalyn made a soft little noise in the back of her throat, the same sort of noise that Ozainu was beginning to recognize as the “Mowgli did something Rosalyn finds cute” noise. It seems that even a PICTURE of a baby could produce such results in humans.

The General then shook himself from his revelry. “Forgive me!” He exclaimed “I’m a proud parent and once I get started then well I plum just won’t stop” He went to his desk and took out a thick bundle of folders. “Here are the candidates you asked for! We already have screened out quite a few of the obviously dangerous ones”

Rosalyn looked at him with a question “Obviously dangerous?”

The general shook his head, he took his stick in his hands and waved it angrily “Baby eaters!” His mustache bristled with fury “Cannibals most fowl!”

Rosalyn gasped and put a hand to her mouth scandalized.

Ozainu stared ahead suppressing an eye roll.

The room behind the interview room was cramped and dark, full of vaguely organic furniture, a very fussy Mowgli and a very nervous Rosalyn. The huge window that took up the entire west side of the room was apparently made of the same material that could turn clear at a touch and was completely blank on the other side.

The knowledge that she couldn't be seen didn't help Rosalyn’s feeling of being exposed. She had tried to leave the Mansion wearing the same outfit she had the day she had interviewed with Ozainu only to be told it was not “bright enough”. She fingered the hem of the bright pastel paisley patterned summer dress and felt like a peach colored doily.

Ozainu sat in the interview room looking over the hastily compiled files for the earth candidates. 

He was not impressed.

Truth be told a good portion of the files were what he suspected to be heavily edited portions of social networking profiles and in one case something which had to be from a role play blog. Resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose he tapped the part of the wall that turned it from a rather dull grey to a crystal clear window.

Rosalyn started slightly at the sudden change of light but recovered quickly. 

Ozainu looked down at her. “Are you prepared for the first candidate? Once the interview is done I will clear the window to gauge their initial reaction to you.” 

Rosalyn took a breath that was only slightly shaky. “Yes.” she said, “Then I ask them my questions.” She had a tablet with some questions tucked in her lap next to a dozing Mowgli. She and Ozainu had spent the previous morning preparing the questions to weed out any candidates that, as Rosalyn had put it “gave her a bad feeling”. 

Ozainu trusted her to some extent to pick up on predatory intent.

She had after all grown up under it.  

He continued, “I will of course be observing not only their verbal responses but their body language and vocal tics. If you at any point decide a candidate is unacceptable alert me with the message app I showed you last morning. Understood.” 

Rosalyn gave him a slightly shaky smile and pinged him on the app. A tiny saluting troll emoji pinged on his tablet next to a ‘Understood.’ 

Ozainu turned back around and pressed the section of wall darkening the room she sat in slightly as the wall darkened on his side. She could still see through but the window appeared slightly darkened to her perspective. Like a tinted car window.

In the waiting room a little over half a dozen trolls of various shades waited for their interview.

 

The door to the interview room opened and a deep voice called “Lizzma Nanawh.”

Oh god this was happening. This was really happening! She fingered a magazine cut-out of Chris Evans sticking out of a binder she has brought with. She pushed up her glasses. She was going to get clearance to be on the same planet as HIM. The beautiful golden-haired vision that haunted her every waking moment.

Captain America.

Don’t worry Mr.America.

She’s coming.

Ozainu looked at the first page of LIZZMA NANAWH’s file. He turned over a page, then another, then flipped through what seemed to be a whole novel’s worth of badly spelled red romance fiction. 

He looked down at the nervous bronze troll and sighed. She had turned in well over a hundred pages of what seemed to be a piece of fiction starring her and a human celebrity.

“Well Miss Nanawh this is certainly … extensive.”

Lizzma sat up a little straighter. This enormous seatroll would normally have her terrified but this was her chance. She took a deep breath to state her case and explain why she NEEDED to go to earth and how captain america was waiting for her and- Ozainu cut her off before she could get out so much as a word.

“I think your work speaks for itself. You pass initial inspection. I’m sending you to earth as an official- ” he glanced down at his tablet and scrolled for a second before stabbing his finger down at random on “-Cultural Ambassador and Media Translator.”

Lizzma blinked. She hadn't expected it to be nearly that simple. She had printed out 5 more of her stories in case the first one hadn't been to the intervicerators liking. She felt a bit torn, she had kinda wanted to show someone else her work but if she was going to be able to go to earth and meet …. Him … .it was absolutely worth it! She could visit the holly woods and meet all the Chrises that lived there! 

Caught up in the dashing romantic comedy/drama playing behind her eyes she missed most of what Ozainu was saying. Barely paying attention as she was the phrases Live action film and what she thought was hollywood sealed it! 

She was going to earth.

Her fanfiction was about to become fanfact.

“-assigned to Mumbai India. Your interest in  **‘live action’ film** is noted and the B **ollywood film industry** is one of if not the largest in the world. Your duties will be-” 

She sighed and started mentally planning out her first date outfits. 

Ozainu carefully added (NO DRONE VISITS) to her file and sent the elated troll out. Getting this one off the planet and out of the genepool would be good for the entire species.

  
  


The next troll on the list was a REMADO OAKMAH

Blood color: Indigo 

Age: 26 sweeps

Reason for volunteering for mission: Research ;)

A tall elegant troll in a deep purple crop top  grinned at the pudgy little troll with the gleaming bronze braces who came out of the interview room ecstatic and hyperventilating over a picture of some human dude. What the shit man people are hilarious. He hooked an arm over the back of his chair, the other hand held a long and ornately carved tobacco pipe in his long talons that were edged in gold. He inhaled and blew out a ring of smoke. One of the other trolls sitting next to him gave him a nasty glare. He blew smoke out of his nose like a dragon. 

Humans were pretty fuckin cool.

From what he had seen they were way more into … platonic … affection then trolls were. 

He had done some cursory research in one of his more sober moments and to his delight found out about the human thing called a “Nail Salon”. Trolls considered nail care and massages to be an incredibly close and personal thing reserved for longtime romantic partners. Humans just paid others to do it. 

It was an actual legitimate job. 

Fuckin wild.   


The rest of the resume that Remado had sent in was slightly sticky with something Ozainu could not quite identify and wasn’t sure he wanted to identify, but outlined the youth’s former membership and high position in the church of the mirthful messiahs. The smoke curling up from their pipe smelled oddly sweet, curling from the boy’s nose in long wisps. They wore gold winged eyeliner and when they smiled up at Ozainu he could see that one of their fangs had been replaced with a gold tooth.

Ozainu sighed. What were the nobility coming to these days. Oh well the boys resume might have been sticky, but it was passable and aside from some mild substance abuse this Remado seemed an alright troll. He answered all the questions easily and in a calm measured manner that reassured Ozainu. At least the kid had prepared.

“Well Mr.Oakmah you seem to have a solid grasp on basic earth politics, media, and economy.”

Remado smiled. “Yeah man humans are … wild.” he said punctuating the last word with the raising of his eyebrows.

Ozainu sniffed but let it pass. He had a fairly solid feeling about this one. It helped that he was purple and would actually be able to live long enough that his time on earth wouldn't be wasted getting to know the planet for a few decades before dying. He typed (LONG TERM INVESTMENT- UNLIMITED IMPORT & EXPORT) into Remado’s form and looked back down at the younger troll. 

“Now for the final portion of the interview.” Said Ozainu as he pressed a button on his tablet.

The wall behind him, which had previously been indistinguishable from the other walls in the room faded to opaque and then clear, revealing a small human woman sitting at a desk behind it.

“This is Rosalyn Briars.”

Remado’s eyes widened a bit but he seemed only pleasantly interested at the sight of the pale alien. Rosalyn gave him a small wave. Remado waved back politely and looked back at Ozainu. “I get it. You want to see how well I interact with a native. Hey bring it on. Humans are great man.”

Ozainu nodded at Rosalyn and she gave him a polite smile before turning to face Remado. 

“Hello, as Mr.Kalala stated I will be leading this portion of the interview.” She paused here for a moment. She and Ozainu had marked specific parts of the script for pauses so Ozainu could watch for signs of violence in the higher blooded trolls. Seemingly this troll was pretty easy going so she continued. 

“I would like to know for starters how you intend on interacting with a human business partner if you end up working in the political or pharmaceutical sector as you have indicated on your file-”

The interview from Rosalyn’s perspective turned out actually quite well. Remado was polite and friendly if a bit off with some of the pop culture and specifics of human culture. He actually got her to laugh a few times and had even gotten her to talk a little bit about her life on earth. When she brought Mowgli out to see how he would react, he merely smiled and told her the infant looked healthy and that she seemed to be doing a good job as a guardian. Which was the most positive statement she had gotten so far about the baby and made her blush a bit with pleasure. It was nice to be told so directly that she was doing a good job! All and all she actually liked him which was a first for the day.

“He seemed quite nice” she said after he had left the interview room.

Ozainu looked vaguely off put for some reason and muttered something about the other troll being a shameless flirt. 

Rosalyn looked questioningly at Ozainu “Do you think that's going to be a problem if he ends up on earth? I didn't catch any weird vibes from him. He wasn't even remotely flirting from what I could tell. He just seemed friendly and interested in my life on earth.” she frowned slightly “Was there something I missed?”

Ozainu had started a bit at that. “Sometimes I forget that humans don't have different types of flirting for different quadrants like we do.”

Rosalyn cocked her head to the side. “So that was…?” 

Ozainu looked back down at his tablet “Blatant. Very Blatant pale flirtation from a troll perspective. Yes.” Rosalyn absorbed the information and reminded herself to ask him more about pale flirting and how to recognize it when they got home later.

Colonel Peterson then chose that moment to open the door to the interview room. “Oh hello!” He greeted them with a smile and a cheery wave.

“Hello!” Rosalyn chirped back

Peterson motioned back to the hallway “We’re having pizza in the breakroom. You want anything? A glass of water? Some food?”

Rosalyn smiled and gently waved him off “No thank you, but it’s kind of you to offer.”

Peterson hummed and nodded “I’ll save you some in case you change your mind. I’ll be here if you need me!”

When the human had left Ozainu arched an eyebrow. “THAT. Wasn’t flirting?”

Rosalyn seemed a bit taken aback. “Well no. He’s just being friendly and polite. Honestly it would be rude if he DIDN’T ask.” Rosalyn shrugged “See I don’t know him well, so when answering the question ‘are you alright’ you have to say ‘I’m fine, thank you’ even if you’re not. They’re required to ask and make sure that you’re comfortable, but you don’t actually let them know how you feel unless you have a deeper relationship than acquaintance.”

Ozainu seemed to come to a realization “...So it is emotional posturing?”

Rosalyn hummed “Of course! We don’t actually tell complete strangers our true emotions. That would be horrifically awkward… But when you’re human you have to go through some baseline  posturing to fit into your community.” Ozainu looked interested.  “See you are required to inquire about a person’s general well being, and you are required to answer that you are fine in a general sense when prompted. You certainly don’t pour your woes out to a stranger you’ve just met, you simply acknowledge that they have been friendly in asking and move on.”

Rosalyn looked over at Ozainu “I think that trolls have gotten the wrong idea about humans, we may be friendlier and more open in a general sense, but most of the time when a human asks someone how they are doing, they honestly do not care. We aren’t that open with feelings.”

Ozainu looked thoughtful. “That sheds quite a bit of insight onto most of the human interactions I've had so far. If it's as you say, and human social norms are based on appearing friendly and outgoing while actually hiding true or unsightly emotions beneath the surface, then humans and trolls might have more in common than i previously thought. ” 

He looked down at Rosalyn as if seeing her in a slightly different light. He wondered at the lengths humans would go to make it seem as if everything was alright and nothing was wrong when under the surface they could be feeling anything. He clearly had more questions to ask her but his tablet beeped at him and he looked down grimacing at the current file loaded on his screen.

A different human popped into the room, a smile across their face. “How are you doing in here? Faring alright? Want a cup of coffee or anything?”

This time Ozainu was looking closer at the interaction and with his budding familiarity with Rosalyn was able to see that the smile she gave the other human was far from genuine.

“Yes thank you I’m fine!” Rosalyn cocked her head and smiled wider at the man, her smile warm but her eyes cold “And how are you?”

The man smiled wider back at her “Just peachy!”

“That’s great!” Rosalyn chirped back.

As soon as the man left Rosalyn’s smile dropped, a neutral expression back on her face and she went back to tending to Mowgli as if nothing had happened.   
  
  
  


Sticku Burbre : watashi wa Sticku Burbre-chan!

Blood color: cerulean

Age: 26 sweeps

Reason for volunteering for mission:

今日は学校であれば最初の日であるため、私は私の口の中でトーストの作品を置きます

The rest of the resume devolved into crudely drawn drawings of the troll kissing a blonde human in a headband and orange jumpsuit.

Ozainu steeled himself. 

The troll that came in was not as young as he was expecting from the brightly colored glitter copiously used on her resume. She looked roughly middle aged, and to make matters worse, under the garish makeup, hello kitty jewelry,and nervous grin Ozainu recognized what was formerly the head Civil-servant terrorist, a distinguished position for midbloods.

His mind was suddenly flooded with flashing images and high pitched human gibberish.

私は紫色の血先輩が私に気付い願っています

私に紫色の先輩を選んでください！私は地球に行って、私の好きなアニメをすべて見たい！私はナルトに会いたい！ああ、私を行かせてください！私は良いことを約束します！

He looked down at the file again trying to fight off a headache.

Wonderful.

On top of it all she was a projecting telepath.

She stared up at him, her eyes wide and her teeth digging into her bottom lip. More images flashed before his eyes-

  


Suppressing a shudder as the images crawled through his mind Ozainu waved his hand at her. “That is more than enough Ms. Burbre. ”. 

It didn’t seem malicious, almost as if what she was doing was compulsive, her mind reduced to the odd human languages and the images she constantly projected into the minds of those around her. 

Not bothering to look up he stamped her file with ( NO DRONE VISITS ) (50 SWEEP MINIMUM STAY) and (NO OUTGOING MAIL) before sending her out and taking a good 10 minutes to listen to a classical symphony to get the animation gifs to stop flashing behind his eyes. He was going to have daymares from that. 

If Rosalyn was curious why the interview was so short lived the look on his face, the fact that she could read his expression so clearly stopped her. He looked like her father when after a long day when all he wanted to do was listen to some quiet music and go to bed. She felt sorry for whatever it was he was going through but long years of seeing that expression had taught her to run and hide and be quiet, not to help. Trying to help would only get you yelled at. 

After a few minutes he seemed to relax and the next troll was brought in.   
  
  


Suama Uratak: Please call me Suzy though!

Blood color: Cobalt

Age:12 sweeps

Reason for volunteering for mission: I’m just plum happy to go to Earth! I’ve admired their art and customs for a while now! I would particularly love to live in the south if you would be so inclined!

Experience: I believe that with my studies of Earth I will be able to blend in with the natives! Like a rattlesnake in the grass! Just lemme at em!

Suama (Suzy) Uratek grinned where she sat across from the Seadweller, she kicked her legs happily. Her shoes were human “Cowboy” boots, embossed with delicately detailed rattlesnakes. She wore blue jeans ripped in several artistically strategic points, a blue flannel shirt unbuttoned with a t-shirt underneath that proudly proclaimed “Everything is bigger in texas” complete with a blonde human woman with improbably sized heft sacks under a skimpy flag print bikini. The woman was also wielding two machine guns nestled against her giant tits.

She was friendly and talkative with Ozainu but faltered when in the interview with Rosalyn.

“Oh Golly…” She looked over Rosalyn warily “Ya’ll are a lot smaller than I reckoned. Also your heftsacks are…”

Rosalyn gave her a harsh look and buttoned her sweater. “Miss Uratak, please refrain from talking about another’s bre- um...heftsacks. It is a good way to get yourself slapped on Earth.”

 

Hanleh Warjah: Hanleh Warjah

Blood Color: Teal

Age: 15 sweeps

Reason for volunteering for mission: Unique properties of Earth

Hanleh Warlah sat across from the seadweller, rubbing his claws with a disinfectant wipe. Ozainu watched them wipe the armrests of the chair as well before unzipping a plastic bag, depositing the wipe and throwing the whole package into the disposal. 

Ozainu arched an eyebrow. “You mentioned the ‘unique properties of Earth’ as your reason for volunteering. Can you please explain yourself?

Hanleh nodded. “The planet Earth is tilted in their orbit around their star, the orbit is somewhat irregular and at an odd oblong.” His eyes flashed “This means that once a year parts of the planet are put into a deep sterilizing freeze.”

A muscle in the teal’s forehead quivered as he clenched his teeth. “This fact is...of particular note to me.”

Ozainu nodded “this isn’t a field trip. You will have to be useful to the empire.”

The teal straightened in their seat and nodded “I am prepared to do so.”

Ozainu pressed the button that revealed Rosalyn. “Then please converse with this native. Show me that you can be of use on this planet.”

Hanleh looked over at Rosalyn with thinly veiled disgust. “...of course…”

Rosalyn smiled and nodded “Hello. Good afternoon.”

Hanleh growled “Just ask your questions please.”

Rosalyn hummed lowly, she looked at him calculatingly and set the paper aside. She smiled disarmingly and crossed her legs. “Oh but we haven’t even started with the pleasantries yet!”

Rosalyn cocked her head and picked up Mowgli. “Don’t mind me! Children need to be tended for constantly…. Did you know that the average human has roughly 100 trillion microbes in and out of their body at all times? Fascinating. Children especially are little germ factories. ”

Ozainu watched in fascination as after 10 minutes of Rosalyn's subtle needling the interview ultimately ended in the teal rushing out of the interview space to vomit in the hallway. Rosalyn rocked Mowgli gently and hummed “Well I hope I wasn’t too hard him.”  she readjusted Mowgli’s hat “Though honestly Earth is just fine without him.”

Ozainu stifled a laugh. “You did nothing but be extremely factual with him, I believe I will agree with you on this one.”

 

Parize Franse: The Duchess

Blood color: Violet

Age: 13 sweeps

Reason for volunteering for mission: Just be glad that I’m doing it ok?

Parize Frasne huffed and crossed her legs, the soles of her imported authentic Prada heels glinting a deliciously dangerous candy red. She was sick of going through smugglers and dealers for her designer clothes. Not only were the prices ridiculous even for HER but by the time they arrived they were already out of style! She wanted the new styles as soon as they came out! She couldn’t bear to be unfashionable It’s just like they always say, if you want a dragon-worm look in it’s burrow.

She burrowed further into her plush violet cashmere sweater.

Her resume was a single card, elegantly embellished with violet and gold swirls.

“I am a violet blood.” The card announced in looping finely penned script. Ozainu flipped the card over and in just as fine a script on the back was printed “Bye.”

Ozainu huffed “I will need at least bit more effort here.”

Parize sighed long-sufferingly, resting a cheek against long talons dipped in what looked like chrome polish and accented with tiny pearls “I’m good at not killing people.”

Ozainu considered that for a moment. “Very well then, you’ll be assigned to-” he glanced down at the list of cities that had joined the exchange program, “-Milan, Italy.” 

 

Kokoni Fargan: Koko to my friends!

Blood color: Green

Reason for volunteering for mission: I just like helping animals!

Ozainu flipped through Kokoni’s brief. They listed their medical experience particularly in lusus rehabilitation centers. That may be useful...

Kokoni shuffled awkwardly in their seat, fiddling with the shell necklace they wore awkwardly. To be honest they had gotten lost looking for the Lusii medical center recruitment, they had no idea what this interview was for and were afraid to ask at this point.

A wall turned translucent and a human sat on the other side, small and adorable with a sweet little smile. They asked Kokoni some questions and they did their best to answer them. Wait why is there a human here?

The seadweller nodded their head. “Congratulations. You will be sent to Des Moines Iowa.”

Kokoni’s brow furrowed. “...What’s an Iowa?”

The seadweller arched a brow. “It’s a place on Earth.”

“EARTH???”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always I absolutely LOVE hearing from you guys! please please comment if you enjoyed! Heckin tell me everything. Comment on me like one of your french girls.


	10. The Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ozainu gets a call from his oldest student Laquda.
> 
> He was not expecting this.
> 
> He knew She was dating a yellow blood and while he very strongly disapproved she was old enough several times over to make her own decisions.
> 
> But really.
> 
> Dating a human.
> 
> That's taking it too far.
> 
>  
> 
> Isn't it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Sorry for not posting in a while! I have been pretty sick these past couple of weeks! CyanideOreos however is awesome and I don;t know where I would be without her! So show her some love for her hard work on this chapter and the lovely illustrations she does! She is a miracle worker!

 

 

 

Ozainu was exhausted. The majority of the day had been wasted dealing with lowbloods that would just waste their time on Earth pursuing the alien animes or probably just attempting to quadrant up with humans. The disgusting Xenophiles. He pinched the bridge of his nose. The few trolls of decent blood that HAD made it through were … less than he had hoped for. More than he had expected but still.

 

He sighed.

 

Rosalyn was in the back of the scuttlebuggy shoving some tube or other into Mowgli's mouth attempting to stop the grub from screaming he supposed. He looked back for a moment, no she was feeding the boy. Maybe that was why the child had been kicking up such a fuss?

 

He flicked his eyes back to the road.

 

Soon they would be back to his hive and he could have a proper meal and listen to some proper music without the headphones and -- BZZ -- BZZ--

His pocket device was buzzing.

 

Perfect.

 

He pulled it out and glanced at the picture that popped up identifying the caller. If this wasn't someone he knew he was going to-

 

A familiar finned face with one scarred eye and a huge smile that was larger and more full of teeth then most alternian sharks filled the screen.

 

oh...

 

This was a pleasant surprise.

 

He sent a quick message to the caller that he would call them up on the view screen at home as soon as he was through with his transit and put the phone back.

 

Rosalyn peeked her head over the seat, noting the much-improved expression on Ozainu’s face. “You seem to be in a better mood. Did something good happen?”

 

Ozainu looked ahead at the nearing strip of beach where his huge golden octopus hive waited. He looked at her for a moment before parking the skuttlebuggy. And pulling out his pocket Device. “Yes.” he paused and then continued with what Rosalyn was shocked to imagine was almost a smile. “An old student of mine just contacted me. We have not communicated for some time and it will be … agreeable to communicate with her face to face this evening.”

 

Rosalyn smiled. “I’m sure she’s missed you as well.”

 

Ozainu almost sputtered but coughed instead. He wasn't that pathetic. He was just grateful to talk to a former student of his class that was all. Someone who had grown agreeably under his mentorship. There were few enough seadwellers that he actually enjoyed talking to and Laquda Lareek was, despite her eccentricities, a good troll.

 

Missing her indeed.

 

After they’d settled in and had a quick dinner Rosalyn disappeared off to Mowgli’s quarters to put the child to sleep and do … whatever it was she did when she wasn't looking after Mowgli.

 

Ozaniu settled into his viewing screen room and called Laquda. He had been so busy with the ascendance of the new Benevolence and dealing with the cross cultural … exchange with Earth that he hadn't had time to talk to anyone he considered close to himself.  

 

The screen flickered on and the face of his oldest mentee, and if he was going to be honest his favorite student, filled the screen. There was quite a lot of the rest of her filling the wall sized screen as well. Laquda had always been a big troll and she was clearly keeping herself in shape wherever she was.

 

A small part of himself that he hadn't even been aware of relaxed. She was alive and keeping herself healthy. That was good. Things were always changing and not for the better, so it was somehow reassuring when some things stayed the same.

 

“COMMANDER OZAINU!” Laquda grinned and leaned towards the webcam excitedly, her shark-like teeth filling the screen.

 

She was as … loud as ever.

 

“HOW HAVE YOU BEEN? HAVE YOU BEEN.” A deep warbling hum came from Laquda’s throat and Ozainu couldn’t help but chuckle to see how excited she was to speak with him.

 

“I have been well.” Ozainu gave her a small smile and a nod “The Bludgeon of the empire seems to be keeping herself hale and healthy. It is good to see you.”

 

Laquda’s face went through a complicated set of expressions landing on that of someone who was just called a pet name by their parent in front of a school assembly.

 

“COMMANDER YOU KNOW … KNOW I Hate that title… title.”

 

Ozainu did something he hadn't done in some time. He laughed. Out loud even.

 

“Yes Laquda I am aware of your disdain for your earned title and rank, but it is your title and something you earned through hard work and determination. Forgive an old commander his pride for a student.”

 

Laquda smiled, an odd quirk of the mouth, her shark-like teeth escaping her lips. She shrugged “MAYBE NOT HATE … HATE..”

 

Ozainu’s mouth actually quirked up at the corners.

 

“So Laquda what have you been up to these past decades. I haven't heard from you in sweeps. How is the ship you command fairing? It was a double-decked starship with some excellent cannons as I remember and...”

 

Laquda looked off to the side, grimacing a bit.

 

The corners of Ozainu’s mouth fell, his claws began to clicking testily against the desk. He knew that ‘baby barkbeast just having pissed on the carpet’ look. He had seen it many times before.

“Laquda what happened to the ship.” It wasn't a guess, it was a demand for answers.

 

Laquda tapped two meaty fingers together, Ozainu noticed that the first two claws on each hand had been filed down to a rounded point. What? Laquda shrugged. “I UH…. I GAVE THE SHIP TO MY FIRST MATE… first mate … FOR JUST AS LONG AS SHE LIVES… SHE’S JUST A CERULEAN … A CERULEAN … SO…-”

 

Ozainu straightened in his chair bristling  “A cerulean in charge of a seadwellers personal ship!” He sighed pinching the bridge of his nose “...Laquda this is HIGHLY improper I-”

 

A human woman walked by the camera. She didn’t seem to notice the webcam, long tanned legs peeking out from what looked suspiciously like Laquda’s shirt. She had short black hair, a whip-like leanness to her and dark gleaming brown eyes. Her hand trailed across Laquda’s shoulders teasingly as she walked by. “Good morning dear.” She murmured, took a sip of coffee, and walked off screen.

 

Ozainus eyes followed the little human the entire time she was on the screen and the second she disappeared off it his entire posture changed. No longer open he drew himself up in the chair and steepled his hands in front of his mouth. His eyes had gone cold.

 

Laquda put her hands to her hips and rolled her eyes “OH WHAT?”

 

“I was unaware you were on Earth. If you would like to … explain the situation to me. I would be most interested to hear how this … relationship came to be.” His words were cordial enough but the tone was commanding.

 

He wanted an explanation. Now.

 

Laquda’s face pinched for a moment like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar but she shook it off and resolved herself. “ALRIGHT.” She shook her head and grimaced unsure how to start.

 

She put out her hands, motioning forcefully “SO MY LUSUS WENT TO EARTH. AND I WAS ALL LIKE- DAD WHAT THE FUCK RIGHT? DAD. NO. SO I TRIED TO GO TO EARTH AND GO GET HIM, GET HIM-”

 

Ozainu raised an eyebrow but nodded and motioned for her to continue.

 

“-SO I RIDE UP TO EARTH, GET A CAR, DRIVE UP BUT THERE’S THIS TINY HUMAN IN HIS HOUSE.” She glared at the camera “AND SHE WOULDN’T. LEAVE. AND HE SAYS IT’S HIS HUMAN DAUGHTER. HUMAN DAUGHTER!!”

 

She chittered to herself annoyed for a moment before her eyes went dreamy “AND THEN I MET HER. OZAINU SHE’S SO PRETTY. PRETTY. I’M GONNA FUCKING DIE.”

 

Ozainu sighed and seemed about to speak when Laquda interrupted and continued.

 

“SO I BROKE A ZOO. A ZOO AND A MCDONALDS. MCDONALDS. MOTHER FUCKING SUBJUGGULATORS MAN HOLY SHIT. THERE WAS THIS OLD HUMAN WHO WAS A TOTAL BULGE AND TRIED TO KILL MY LUSUS. AND I MET ONE OF THE TROLLS MY LUSUS RAISED AFTER ME! AND COMMANDER HE IS STRAIGHT UP A FUCKING NERD, NERD! I HAD TO GO TO BUILD A LIBRARY HERE TO SAY I’M SORRY. I HAD TO GO TO FUCKING COURT BECAUSE OF THE MOTHERFUCKER, FUCKIN COURT, BUT IT TURNS OUT HUMAN COURT HAS WAAAAAYYY LESS ARMED COMBAT THEN OUR PROPER COURTS AND THE FIRST MOTHERFUCKER, AH, NOT MY BROTHER. BROTHERS WHAT YOU CALL A TROLL ALSO RAISED BY YOUR LUSUS ANOTHER TROLL RAISED BY YOUR LUSUS!. IT TURNS OUT THERE’S A WORD FOR THAT. HUMANS HAVE WORDS FOR EVERYTHING!”

 

Laquda was excitedly gesticulating now, Ozainu was blank-faced as he processed the onslaught of information. “ANYWAY OK SO YOU KNOW HOW I HAD TROUBLE READING SOMETIMES? TURNS OUT I’M NOT A DUMBASS IT’S JUST “DYSLEXIA” WHICH IS A BRAIN… UH...PAN CONDITION THING AND  A DIFFERENT WRITING FONT FIXED EVERYTHING AND HOLY SHIT. A DIFFERENT FONT!”

 

She paused for a moment, leaning back in her chair with self-satisfaction. “TURNS OUT I’M FUCKING SMART AS SHIT NOW. FUCKING LEGIT AMBASSADOR AND ALL THAT. FUCK.”

 

She shrugged. “AND YANNO I CAN’T HAVE A SHIP WHEN I’M STUCK ON EARTH. AN ELIPAH IS A GOOD MOTHERFUCKER. BIT OF A BACKSTABBER BUT I RESPECT THAT. ONE FUCKING GOOD MOTHERFUCKER.”

 

“ANYWAY THAT OTHER HUMAN FUCKER, WHITE-ASS OR SOME SHIT, TRIED TO KILL MY LUSUS, MY LUSUS. I FUCKED HIM UP USING THE MOTHERFUCKING LAW. I’M SMART NOW. AND SHARON. SHARON IS THE PERFECT MATESPRITE.” She took a breath about ready to go on about her new girlfriends no doubt stellar attributes.

 

Ozainu took a deep breath and let it out.

 

Laquda snapped her jaws shut. She didn't like the look on his face.

 

His voice, when he finally spoke, was calm.

 

“I respect you Laquda. You know that. We have been through much together over the last hundred or so sweeps, and what you choose to do with your quadrants, no matter how foolish I think it to be in the long term, I respect them as your choices to make to make.”

 

Laquda definitely did not like where this was going. She was practically sliding out of her chair, uncomfortable and desperate to escape Ozainu’s disappointed face, her frills pointing down and back with shame.

 

“I tried talking to you when you first started that kismessitude with the olive blood, and then again when you had that bronze matesprit. I am aware you are currently pitch dating a mustardblood with how many photos of you two he puts out on social media. I still do not and probably will never understand how a mutual rivalry or romance could work when you have the advantage both physically and mentally but your decisions are yours.”

 

Here it came.

 

“The thing is, Laquda…”

 

Laquda was looking at her hands, at her feet, at the decorative paintings on the wall over his shoulder. Anything but the screen. She didn't want to hear this. Not again.

 

“Laquda look at me.”

 

She whipped her head up ready to yell, ready to defend her lover.

 

Ozainu’s face wasn't angry. It wasn’t the face of a commander or of a seadweller disgusted with the lower castes.

 

His face was … she’d never actually seen this expression on his face before.

 

It almost looked. Heartbroken for a moment.

 

“Laquda have I ever told you about my moirail?” Ozainu asked softly.

 

That seemed to throw her for a loop. She shook her head. This was not where she thought the conversation was going.

 

“I….” Laquda paused and ran a hand through her hair, her voice was uncharacteristically soft “...I knew he was uh...with you...I saw him... I never knew his name...I knew not to ask...but...I never found out what.. Uh…” Laquda looked up at her commander, her brows furrowed and her mouth pinched “...what ....happened…”

 

In the next few minutes briefly and unemotionally Ozainu told her of his pale romance with a Bronzeblooded troll named Mosart.

The details he gave were bland and the retelling almost felt like a report at parts, but the pain that was studiously absent from his face hinted at a deep truly brutal emotional wound that had never really healed. His first moirail had been from the second lowest caste, and they had apparently been truly fated palemates.

 

And after they had found a perfect equilibrium and were truly at peace and happy his moirail had died.

 

Ozainu’s description was brutally clinical.

 

His moirail had developed some sort of degenerative mental condition in his advanced age and forgotten even Ozainu’s name before dying unceremoniously in his sleep, while Ozainu had been trying to find a cure for what at the time had seemed like an almost silly illness that made his moirail absent-minded and then … and then.

 

Laquda stared at her one-time commander. He had never opened up like this.

 

She didn't say anything just sat and listened and when he seemed done. She rubbed a hand across her face, her lips pressed into a harsh line  “COMMANDER YOU NEVER SAID … I DIDN'T KNOW YOU-”

 

Ozainu interrupted her. He was not going to let this devolve further into a pity fueled feelings jam … just no. “Now do you understand why I tried to prevent you from dating anyone below indigo now?”

 

Ozainu’s face was carefully blank. “Don’t you know…” Ozainu spoke almost softly “That they’ll just...die? Die and leave you without them?”

 

The question was expected but still, it caught her off guard.

 

Laquda nodded numbly. She huffed and shook her head. She looked deflated, looking out where the human had left. “Comman- … Ozainu...don’t you think...don’t you think I know that?”

 

Her voice was uncharacteristically quiet and even. She huffed and tugged at her unruly hair. “Sharon is already why humans call “middle-aged” already...already half of her is gone. HALF GONE.”

 

She struggled with her words for a moment, her breath shaky. “But they’ll never be another like her. Whatever time she’s got...I want it.”

 

She nodded to herself. “I want it…” She looked at him right in the eyes, violet meeting violet. “Ain’t that what we were taught in the old regime? Take what you can fucking get, every fucking scrap. I want every fucking second I can get with her. I’m selfish like that...”

 

“And when the end comes...fuck...I’m lucky for every fucking second I got.”

 

Ozainu looks at her “Laquda I really envy you for that. I wish I too could put aside the fact that time with them is inherently brief.” his throat worked “If you are happy then at the very least … don’t broadcast the relationship.”

 

Laquda looked ready to bite back a response but he raised a hand. “Listen to me Laquda. I might not understand entirely, but your relationships are yours. I will not prevent or meddle with them, no matter how much hurt I fear they may bring you. What I am hesitant about is the response from other seadwellers.” He gave her a meaningful look “You know the lower bloods could not hope to harm you or your … Sharon, but if enough highbloods and seadwellers are against xeno-romantic relationships that your Sharon and the people she cares for could be in real danger if word got out on Alternia that there was a serious red relationship going on between you and a human.”

 

Laquda bristled at the thought that someone might hurt Sharon, baring her teeth with a growl. “IF ANYONE TRIED TO HURT SHARON I’D-”

 

“- be too late if a powerful enough seadweller with a chip on their shoulder sent down a full battalion to send a message.”

 

Laquda heard the truth in that statement. She knew full well what seadwellers did for the sake of grudges. She was a seadweller herself after all. The conversation petered out after that both trolls clearly emotionally drained and they said their goodbyes before disconnecting the link.

 

Ozainu poured himself a neat drink.

 

Then another.

 

He stared at the wall and willed himself to hit the button that would shift the wall to its transparent state so he would be looking out a window and not staring angrily at a wall.

 

Instead, he poured himself another drink.

 

Why couldn’t life be simple.

 

He poured again missing the glass and scowled at the wall his face twisting into something ugly.

  
  


Rosalyn heard a glass shatter and took that as her cue to scamper off back to her rooms.

 

She had been looking for a laundry room in the labyrinth of the mansion and had been about to ask Ozainu when he had started his facetime/spaceskype? Conversation with another troll.

 

She waited for a moment in the conversation that would be appropriate to walk in and ask him but as the two trolls talked on she couldn’t help but snoop a little. There was so much about her boss she just didn't know and even more about troll culture that was a mystery.

 

She ended up barely holding back tears as Ozainu told the other troll about his past lover? Boyfriend? Something called a moirail anyway, holding a hand to her mouth to stifle a sob that threatened to escape. It made sense...Rosalyn remembered Jukilo telling her how trolls aged up the hemospectrum, how old Ozainu was, practically immortal compared to most of his kind he had no choice but to slowly watch his moirail die.

 

Rosalyn watched as Ozainu searched for another glass to replace the one he head broken and was suddenly aware of just how much she was intruding. She sympathized with him of course, it was the first time she had seen him appear to be...well for the lack of a better word, human. Having loved someone so thoroughly and lost them to the slow ravage of time. Even so she had no right to this moment.

 

She used the skill she had used a thousand times before in her household, she moved without a sound, moving like a ghost away from Ozainu and the misery that hung around him like a cloud.

 

In the hallway she sighed. She will have to leave him to it.

 

During the next couple of hours Rosalyn attempted to sleep, trying desperately to forget the defeated slope of his shoulders, the way his fins drooped. Mosart. Who was Mosart?

 

She quickly gave up on sleep and decided that if she was going to be awake she might as well be doing something worthwhile.

 

She twisted wire between her fingertips, creating a tiny noose, flinging it upwards until it hooked the end of the lightswitch. She pulled and the light obediently switched off. She threaded a spring over the wire and kept working, using a hinge to make a secondary switch that was lower and easier for her to reach. She had always been good at this, beginning with the lock she installed on the inside of her door when she was ten she had always been good at this. Making things, whether it was with knitting needles, solder, nails and wood, wire and springs.

 

She finished her contraption, flipping a small tab at her level and humming pleased with herself as the light turned on and off.

 

She finally found the laundry room, feeling more confident it only took her a couple of quick translations of the text on each of the bulbous machines identified which machine was a washer and which machine was a dryer and what each button did.

 

She had to do a bit of climbing  to reach the buttons on the machine. Navigating the very much so Ozainu-sized house, with washing and drying machines large enough to practically be hot tubs. She felt like a child or a lilliputian, the tiny people gulliver met on his travels.

 

She tried to be as inconspicuous as she could with her modifications running string behind the buttons and … the machine that she had loaded her clothes into was bubbling ominously.

 

She tried pushing the off button but it was now blinking red. That couldn't be good.

 

She valiantly tried to translate the flashing words that were appearing on the washing machine but the tablet had gotten purple sudds on it and was making a very distressing buzzing noise.

 

Wait when had  the bubbles turned purple?

 

Shit.

 

Rosalyn growled and looked back to the translator. She had translated the writing on the machine and found it to be all clothes-based, she assumed it was a washing machine but...She clicked on one of the words she translated and scrolled down the list of synonyms.

 

Rosalyn’s brows were furrowed “Clothes machine…” She whispered to herself “Machine for the betterment of clothes, machine for the clothes that are to become better with it’s use, machine for the nicening of clothes…”

 

Rosalyn rolled her eyes. Reading through the translator reminded her of Jukilo.

 

She continued down the list “Machine for the high-caste-ing of clothes….” Rosalyn hummed. That didn’t make sense why would-

 

She eyed the purple bubbles at the top of the machine.

 

Oh no…

 

Rosalyn scrambled up to the top of the machine, ripping open the door. As she had feared, the clothes, her dresses and slacks she had been using, the pearly white ones that it was insisted that she use were all…

 

Purple.

 

Or to be more precise they were the exact same shade of royal violet that Ozainu was.

 

Rosalyn hissed through her teeth and ran a hand down her face. Machine for the betterment of clothes! It wasn’t a washing machine! It was a clothes dyer!

 

Rosalyn pulled out one of the newer dresses she had bought with Jukilo from the murky purple water, and sighed, the entirety of the dress was now a rich purple, including the once bright white daisies on the hem. Rosalyn wanted to scream.

 

She pulled all of her clothing from the machine, cringing at the very noticeable purple hue, pulling them to a sink, testing beforehand that it was in fact a sink and not some other horrible contraption. She rinsed the clothes, grumbling moodily the entire time.

 

Rosalyn dug through her luggage and managed to find a roll of twine. “Of course it was a clothes dyer instead of a washer…” Rosalyn groused to herself as she cut the twine with her teeth “Nothing in this whole submarine makes any sense so why should your first load of laundry go smoothly? Laundry! Even laundry is complicated now!”

 

Rosalyn stole into the kitchen and scrounged through the recycling bin with a vengeance, pulling out the round tops to two very large jars, the kind with ridges around the rim to help whoever it is that is opening the jar.

 

“Perfect.” Rosalyn muttered to herself, running her thumb across the ridges “This will make for good traction.”

 

She measured the exact center of each lid, before using a screwdriver and a hammer to give each lid a perfect puncture. She then threaded wire through each puncture, rounding it out and bending it to a 90 degree angle on each one.

 

Rosalyn stalked back moodily into the laundry room, her odd devices in hand. She pulled the twine over one of the devices, across the it’s ridged rim, she then pulled the twine across the room, tying it into a loop. There was an odd hook on the wall, about Ozainu’s level, probably for hanging garments. Rosalyn climbed onto the tops if one of the other machines in the room to reach it, threading it through the puncture of one of the lids. She then climbed off the machine and to the other end of the twine loop. She threaded the other jar lid through the loop of the twine, the twine resting on the ridged surface. Rosalyn then pulled the twine taut across the smaller room and threaded the other jar lid through yet another convenient hook on the wall.

 

Rosalyn surveyed her work. She reached for the wire handle on one of the jar lids and tugged experimentally.

 

The twine moved on it’s pulley system.

 

Rosalyn put her hands to her hips. One handmade pulley system clothesline! It was ugly, one of the jar lids loudly proclaimed “PEANUT BUTTER!” in the middle of her invention but it would do for its intended purpose.

 

She went back to her clothes at the rim of the sink and sighed, running her hands across the now permanently violet cloth. She took each of them to the pulley line, hanging one and then turning the handle to push it away from her and make room for a new garment. Rosalyn paused when she came to the now purple daisy dress. The fabric was lighter than the other ones, flowy and almost sheer, so much so that the majority of the fabric had already dried.

 

She sighed. “Well…” Rosalyn shrugged “I better see if it still fits…”

 

Ozainu took another sip of intoxicant. Laquda’s words were jumbled around in his head.

 

“Don’t you think I know that?” Laquda had looked so tired then, he had known Laquda for hundred of sweeps and that look in her eyes, the slope of her usually taut broad shoulders had reminded him uncomfortably of-

 

That didn’t matter now. It didn’t matter how he earned his true title, watching the flames from the bridge of his ship, a glass of liquor in his hands as if he was celebrating, a glass he held but never took a sip as he watched those flames...those horrible flames as Laquda stood stoically behind him, that same tired look in her eyes, those same slumped shoulders.

 

Mosart with his hands to his face as he watched. Brown tears welling up in his eyes, reflecting the flames and turning his brown eyes amber, his shoulders quaking with suppressed sobs.

 

Ozainu roared and threw his glass of liquor. “I AM NOT!” he bellowed, his teeth bared and his shoulders hunched “DOING THIS AGAIN!”

 

The glass shattered against the edge of his desk, spraying sticky liquor across the front of his shirt.

 

Ozainu growled in annoyance, the droplets were already beginning to sizzle ominously on the violet fabric. If he left it there for any longer it would undoubtedly lighten the fabric or maybe even change the hue to...purple.

 

Ozainu grimaced at the thought. He immediately turned on a heel and began to trek to the laundry room. A quick rinse in the clothes cleaning machine and then a touch-up with the clothes dyer should be enough to save one of his favorite shirts.

 

As Ozainu walked to the laundry room he began to shrug out of his shirt, shimmying awkwardly out of the long-sleeved violet top. The shirt got stuck momentarily on the barbed hooks of his horns. He sighed, annoyed at the situation and at the purple cloth covering his face. Today was going horribly, this might as well be another thing that happens.

 

His control was a bit loosened with the liquor in his system and so he just managed to get the shirt off from around his face and horns just as he walked into the laundry room.

 

It was a good thing too, or else he would have fallen over the line that had suddenly sprouted across his laundry room in his absence. Instead he had walked into it but had managed not to trip, the line pressing against his stomach. His brows furrowed and he tossed his shirt across his shoulders, pulling up the line to inspect it.

 

Dotted across the length of the line were a variety of miniature violet clothes...he came across a pair of now very much so purple panties on the line and quickly dropped the twine, trying to pretend that he didn’t just see that

 

“Oh! Hello!”

 

Ozainu looked down at where Rosalyn was sitting on the floor next to the clothes dying machine, a screwdriver was behind her ear and she was deftly twisting wire into an odd shape.

 

She was wearing….She was wearing a violet dress, a specifically hemospectrum correct violet ….Why was she-

 

Rosalyn’s eyes paused on his bare chest before quickly turning her eyes back to her work her face going pink at the literal expanse of bare man in front of her. Good grief his torso alone was probably bigger than she was.

 

Ozainu crossed his arms feeling oddly exposed in the suddenly cramped laundry and had to remind himself that he was just here to clean his shirt.

 

He coughed into a fist and looked back at the pulley system and the now very much so violet clothes along it. “So…” He started lamely “What’s all this?”

 

Rosalyn sighed and scrubbed one slightly violet stained hand across a cheek. Ozainu tried very much so not to look at her hands or think of anything….uh...yeah…

 

Rosalyn huffed out a rueful laugh “I thought your clothes dyer machine was a washing machine. She shook her head “it showed as a “‘Clothes machine’, or a ‘machine for the betterment of clothes’ on my translator” Rosalyn growled slightly to herself, or at least as close as a human could get to a growl “Someone really ought to make a better translator, really get across what the MEANING rather than just the word!”

 

Ozainu looked at the clothesline. He experimentally tugged on the handle and watched as the pulley system worked, one of the garments on the end reached the end of the pulley and popped off the line, falling into a hamper labeled “Rosalyn”. He then stalked over to where Rosalyn had been working, trying to ignore the way Rosalyn instinctually shied away from him.

 

He fiddled with the knobs of the clothes dyer, watching the way the switches on the side of the machine, closer to Rosalyn’s height copied the movement exactly. He then leaned down and tried the switch and saw that the knobs also corresponded to that same motion.

 

He ran a claw across the wire contraption, he turned his head and looked back at the pulley system, it was easy machinery but…

 

“how….” Ozainu started lamely, looking at what the human had put together “...How did you…”

 

Rosalyn laughed nervously, the little almost musical noise made the frills on the side of Ozainu’s face twitch.

 

Rosalyn was looking down at her hands, fitting together two small pieces of machinery that Ozainu couldn’t begin to guess the purpose of. She looked up at him, her smile warm but shy and her brown eyes shining with trepidation.

 

“Uhm ...I-I don’t know?” Rosalyn said “I just did copied the links to the controls at my height so uhm I could ...” her eyes darted to her laundry then back to the looming Ozainu.

 

“That’s just the way it fits together?” Her smile was hesitant but in her brown eyes there was a certain defiant joy shining in through.

 

She was used to authority figures taking away any small victory she claimed and was strongly determined not to let this one go.

 

The machine chimed, alerting anyone who might be near that it was finished with its current load and suddenly Ozainu was once again next to Mosart on his piano bench, the chime of music still echoing through the air as Mosart’s hands hovered above the keys.

 

“How do you do that?” Ozainu had asked fascinated, a grin on his face that was as young and fresh as he was.

 

Mosart had chuckled, his laugh high and breathy, a pleased brown blush on his cheeks. “I don’t know!” Mosart had laughed again as he answered back, his brown eyes shining with mirth “That’s just the way the music fits together!”

 

Ozainu looked down at Rosalyn, her small smile, those bright brown eyes. His eyes trailed down to the violet dress she wore and before he could stop himself he thought-

 

 _‘Mine….she looks like mine, wearing my colors …’_ in a  flash there a taller male figure with brown eyes wearing a violet vest with ...

 

Ozainu hissed and shook his head, trying to dispel the thought. He put one large hand to his forehead and winced.

 

Rosalyn stepped back cautious of his outburst, but when he simply massaged his head  "… Ozainu?” Rosalyn stepped forward, her bare feet sounding delicately against the tile. “...are you alright?”

 

Ozainu glanced back at her but immediately regretted it, seeing those big brown eyes filled with concern. He immediately turned away from her. “Fine ...I’m fine.”

 

Ozainu opened the hatch to an odd acorn-shaped machine. He placed his shirt inside “This one is the washing machine.” He explained without quite looking at her, the weight of her gaze making his hands fumble as he adjusted the settings. “Place this knob so and this knob as so, and then press start.”

 

Rosalyn sighed “if I was designing a space where trolls and humans lived together I would try to make things a bit more...obvious to both species…”

 

Ozainu hummed. He felt like his head was stuffed with cotton. The human was so small, so impossibly tiny and yet her presence was filling up the entire room “I uh…”

 

“Yes?” Rosalyn answered back patiently. He could feel her eyes on him and it made a shiver go down his back.

 

“I uh…” Ozainu clapped his hands together awkwardly “I’m going to go to my coon and er … sleep … good morning.”

 

“Alright…” Rosalyn watched as Ozainu left the room, trying his best not to look at her. Her brows were furrowed as she studied him, he had stuttered, he never stuttered. She remembered the conversation she had accidentally snooped in on and blanched. Her lips tightened and she brought her hands together, wringing them a bit nervously “Are you sure that you’re-”

 

“Yes!” Ozainu answered back a little too quickly “I mean...yes I am sure that I am alright…” He paused at the door frame “....thank you for your...concern…”

 

Rosalyn paused. She didn’t believe him, but she also didn’t want to press. She sighed out a small huff, almost a laugh “Goodnight then.”

 

Ozainu huffed “Goodnight.”

 

Rosalyn watched him leave, staring at his back like he was a puzzle to put together.

 

Ozainu went back to his recuperacoon and slept fitfully, dreaming of large brown eyes.

  
  


She still had a lot to learn about both her new home and the man who lived in it...

 


	11. The soil of Carthon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lovely early evening picnic. What could go wrong with that?
> 
> The soil of Carthon burns all who tread  
> the conquerors of old find themselves dead  
> for the tides of the empire  
> were extinguished by fire  
> The planet shook and the planet quaked  
> though only few were spared their fate  
> fore it was She who came down in a burst of light  
> to stop the fire   
> and   
> bring   
> forth   
> the   
> night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Happy Homestuck day!
> 
> So now that we've gotten to the galaxy costco in Starship Skaia things are going to start to connect more between the fics. There are a couple of big things that we've been hinting to for a long time, since even the early parts of Minnie and Crocodile dad and we're almost there! We're getting another big clue in this chapter for all you secret trackers!

Rosalyn felt like crying. Well no. Usually when she felt this way she felt like shouting and throwing things but that was her father in her trying to act so she always surprised that urge and ended up crying anyway.

The translator app on her alternian tablet was bugging out again, literally. The little grub that housed the app had started twitching and pulsating when she had tried to translate an Alternian book into english and she was getting really frustrated now. 

She took a deep breath and let it out. The poor little thing was clearly trying it’s just-

_ “That's what you are, April 13, 2009, rose and a thousand melons. If you have an opportunity to have a chance of your life, you are dealing with it! How are you doing this time?” _

She just wanted to read a silly comic she had found and she was pretty sure this was not even remotely an accurate translation.

She scrounged around troll wikipedia to find some information on how to program the little grubs, after all she had taken a basic programing class in highschool, how hard could it be to improve something that amounted to troll buggy google translate? She opened the translator app on her tablet and then clicked on “developer’s tools”. She scrolled through the lines of code and huffed out a sigh, even based on her limited knowledge she could tell this was a simple word replacement protocol, one of those simple translating programs that decide that a certain word has a definite equal in the other language and simply exchanges them with no context or grammatical knowledge...

Her eye caught on a paragraph of badly translated text on troll Wikipedia. She wasn't one hundred percent sure, but it seems like all she has to do is feed the little app grub other translation apps compatible with its digestive tract and it would amalgamate the systems into its internal programming. 

She was a bit horrified at the prospect of feeding one grub to another grub like the page suggested. She pondered. While she did not have any other data grubs she did have a bunch of old flash drives she had packed for the trip not knowing the Alternians predisposition for biologically based tech. She wondered. The little grubs could eat metal, she had seen them nibbling paper clips and coins that fell to the bottom of her purse. It was a bit of a long shot but, hey nothing ventured nothing gained.

She pulled out an old flash drive that currently contained the entire works of Ann Rice and with a pinch she cleared it to make room for several english dictionaries, and the best translator apps she could find on both the human and troll internets.

She shrugged. She gave the little flashdrive a kiss for good luck then carefully dropped it into the plastic container that currently housed the translator grub. 

The grub which had been laying in the corner of the container, occasionally flashing a bright pink, perked up, this looked like food. It squirmed over to the flashdrive and seemed to sniff at it for a bit then opened up a startlingly green mouth and began eating the flashdrive. 

After a few gross minutes the drive was gone and Rosalyn stared at the grub, waiting with baited breath. It was using its stubby front legs to groom its mouth in a satisfied way, it was actually pretty cute... She took a breath and was about to pick it up and plug it back into her tablet to see if anything had changed when it … Hiccuped? 

Well no hiccup wasn't the right word. It … expanded in a quick burst. Weird colors were flashing over its previously dull olive colored body and it was twitching in a very spastic way. Rosalyn pulled her hand back and watched, fascinated as the grub doubled in size, turned a bright vivid neon yellow, seemed to glow for half a minute, then shrank back to its original size and turned a glossy silver.

She waited another five minutes but the light show seemed to be over, and the grub was slowly toodling around the plastic container none the worse off from its previous display.

She carefully picked it up and when it didn't explode, or shoot acid, or start singing showtunes, she shrugged and plugged it back into her laptop.

The translation app popped back up on her screen but it looked … sleeker somehow? The little icon which had previously been a rather off putting greenish color was now silver. She clicked the icon then went back to the comic website. 

To her absolute delight the app was working perfectly now! She clapped happily to herself, wiggling in her seat a bit. She opened the code for the translator app again and-

Oh.

Oh my word!

Rosalyn’s eyes bugged out of her head as she read some of the lines whirring across the screen. The script had grown exponentially! Using variables and terms that Rosalyn could barely parse.

{';MSG_BUTTER_BAR_BUTTON = '';MSG_BUTTER_BAR_DESC = 'translation';MSG__LABEL=';MSG_TRANSLATIONS_LABEL='Fewer translations';MSG=' a better translation:';MSG_LANGUAGE_CORRECTION='Translate = this translation';MSG__CORRECTION='Did you mean:';MSG_RELATED_SUGGESTION='See also:';MSG_SUBMIT_SUGGESTION='Submit';MSG_SUBMIT_TRANSLATION='A_TRANSLATION=' improve translation quality y;MSG_TRANSLATE='Translate';MSG_TRANSLATION_ERROR='Translation;MSG_TRANSLATIONS_OF='Translations of;MSG_TTS_EN_AU='Australian';MSG_TTS_EN_US='American';MSG_TTS_EN_GB='British';MSG_TTS_ES_ES='Iberian';MSG_TTS_ES_419='Latin American';MSG_TTS_PT_BR='Brazilian';MSG_TTS_PT_PT='European';MSG_TTS_CMN='Mandarin';MSG_TTS_YUE='Cantonese';MSG_UNDO_EDITS='View original translation';MSG_USE_ALTERNATIVE='Use';MSG_FOLLOW_SANTA='Follow to user-select: none; direction: l"gt-is gt-is-desktop gt-is-tr-on" role="menu"><div ovfl-xlt-arrow-ltr"></div><span id="gt-ovfl-xlt-more" class="ovfl-xlt-more">TRANSLATE MORE</span></div></div><div id="gt-ovfl-text" class="ovfl-text" dir="ltr"></div> </div> </div> Translator</a></div></div>,'15700181'];FILE_TRANSLATION_PATH='//translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_f';TEXT_TRANSLATION_PATH='/';TTS_TEXT_SIZE_LIMIT=200;TRANSLATED_TEXT='';var ctr, h;tld='.com';FEATURE_STICKINESS=[[null,null,null,false,"auto","en"],true];NND=[['id','en'],['en','id'],['hi','en'],['en','hi'],[''],['ru','uk'],['es','ca'],['ca','es'],['cs','sk'],['sk','cs']];</script><script>window.jstiming.load.tick('prt');</script><script none;">};

Rosalyn cautiously loaded up the comic she had been reading, biting her lip in anticipation. She read the first lines of the comic and gave a tiny whoop of victory! It had worked!!

_ “A young man stands in his bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, 2009, is this young man's birthday. Though it was thirteen years ago he was given life, it is only today he will be given a name! What will the name of this young man be?” _

Rosalyn spent the rest of the night being happily confused by the weird comic she had spent the entire evening reconfiguring her translator to read, bouncing Mowgli gently on a knee as she read. Maybe it hadn’t been entirely the translator’s fault in the beginning...

By the middle of the night it was time to feed Mowgli, the little baby beginning to fuss where he had been happily playing with a plastic ring toy beforehand. She was a little stiff from sitting so she stretched, cracking her spine and threw on a newly bright violet sundress, some rainboots and a wide brimmed hat, and headed over to the kitchen to make some lunch. 

She rehydrated some mashed bananas to go with the formula for Mowgli and made herself a few tuna sandwiches and some pink lemonade. Packing up their lunches she headed over to the Greenhouse.

Settling in with Mowgli under a huge teal tree, odd palm-like branches stretching out lazily above them. She was about to dig into her picnic when she noticed a rustling in the bushes near the doors. 

Ozainu emerged from a large circular door to the right of the one she had come in through. It must have been one of the exit doors that lead to the ocean because he was dripping wet and dragging what looked like a shark behind him. 

Rosalyn hesitantly waved at him and shouted a “Good evening!” towards him. He seemed to see her and raised a hand in recognition before disappearing into the brush. She assumed he was headed for the kitchen and therefore wasn't expecting it when after a few quiet minutes he popped up almost silently from behind the tree, startling her into almost knocking over the pitcher of lemonade.

“Ahh!”  Rosalyn squeaked, clutching her sandwich to her chest with surprise. Her big brown eyes peering up at him with shock “Ozainu!”

Ozainu looked down at her, one brow quirked. “Rosalyn.”

Rosalyn put a hand to her chest, breathing heavily for a moment, her heart threatening to beat out of her ribcage “You gave me a start!” 

Ozainu looked almost amused. “I am sorry for startling you.” He wasn’t remotely sorry ”I thought I would share lunch with you and Mowgli.” 

Rosalyn peered around him at the shark he had evidently beaten to death with his bare hands and dragged into the sub for lunch. How did she not hear him drag that behind her? He was…able to be disturbingly quiet when he wanted to be. The Alternian shark was around the size of a tiger shark with two sets of cloudy grey eyes. Every square centimeter of the inside of the shark’s mouth were filled with barbed teeth, their maw gaping open in death. Three tongues drooped out of the creature’s mouth, also covered in large barbs, dripping something lime green that hissed as it touched the soil.

She felt her stomach give a very unpleasant lurch. “Uhm that's very kind of you but, uhm I don't think for Mowgli...he can’t eat solid foods yet, much less sharks and uh... Uhm I wouldn't want to impose and … er.” She fumbled trying to find a polite way of saying no, that didn't carry the implication that she would vomit if he brought that shark any closer but found herself lost.

Ozainu glanced at her tiny sandwiches and pitcher of mysterious pink stuff, then at Mowgli’s bottle of formula and mashed bananas, and then back to his shark. His inner diplomat seamlessly took over. 

“But I see you already have your lunch. Perhaps I will simply share this pink...” he paused and squinted at the pale pink liquid.

Rosalyn immensely relieved she wouldn't have to eat raw shark filled in “OH! The Lemonade! It's made from a sour fruit from back on earth. Its very tangy. Here.” She pulled out a cup she had stowed in her bag for the picnic and filled it with lemonade, then paused and looked from the cup to Ozainu’s proffered hand. It looked like a tiny dolls cup in his large hand and she had to suppress a giggle when he delicately took the cup between two fingers and sipped at the lemonade. 

His eyebrows went up. “This is not what I expected.” 

Rosalyn looked up at him from her own cup.

He waved a hand at her and kept sipping. “It is definitely a sour drink but there is something else there under the sour....” He poured himself another tiny cup of lemonade and this time drained the little cup easily in one mouthful. 

Rosalyn smiled glad he seemed to like the Lemonade. “Oh it's probably-” 

He raised a hand “No no this is enjoyable let me see if I can guess. If I can't figure it out by lunches end you may tell me but I enjoy figuring out the ingredients of drinks. It is an enjoyably clean passtime.”

Rosalyn smiled and took a bite of her sandwich. 

The lunch passed in a very pleasant way with Ozainu neatly stripping lines of shark meat from the carcass behind him and delicately sipping from the tiny cup between bites.

Rosalyn had never actually had a proper picnic with someone else before. She had pretend ones in her room sometimes, and once had taken a backpack full of snacks to the roof of her high school, but the janitor had found her and she’d had to pack up before even finishing her lunch.

This was nice. Sitting with someone else in a sunny (albeit artificially so) place with plants and a blanket under her, listening to the drip of water as the ferns overhead slowly dried off from the artificial rain storm. Ozainu seemed to be enjoying himself as well. She rarely, if ever, saw him smile and for once he seemed to be in a good mood, leaning against the tree comfortably. Seeing him take tiny sips from the little plastic cup, comically dwarfed in his huge hand, made her giggle, just a little.

He was chatting now, actually chatting! Something about the local sealife and... sharks?

Rosalyn’s brows furrowed, watching the normally restrained Ozainu move his hands about like an excitable teenaged girl.

He seemed weirdly… giddy? Rosalyn ventured a comment about the clams she had noticed clustered around the portholes and Ozainu … chuckled …. No that wasn't the right word he … giggled, putting a hand up to his mouth to half-heartedly suppress a snort.

Rosalyn was was absolutely struck by the sound.

That was almost...

adorable.

“The shellfish reminds me of you a bit.” Ozainu announced this as if he was handing down some divine wisdom, swirling his cup of pink lemonade lazily “Their coloring is that color of pale orangey pink that some of you humans seem to be.” he took another sip of lemonade and Rosalyn watched curiously as he downed the entire cup. He pointed one very large clawed hand at her before booping her on the nose with the tip of one deadly looking claw. “You especially.” Rosalyn blinked, her hands flying up to touch her nose as if he could have accidentally sliced it off. Her cheeks colored not quite sure how to take being compared to a shellfish. 

What was WITH him? If he had been anyone else she would have assumed he was just being gregarious and friendly.

But this was.

This was OZAINU.

Ozainu looked down at her. He slowly flopped down so he was on his stomach propped up by his elbows. This brought him almost right down to her eye level and just a bit too close for comfort. 

He peered at her boredly, making Rosalyn’s blush worse, fully across her cheeks and to the tips of her ears. Why was he so close? He propped his head on one hand. “See now your going all pink. Can humans change into any color they want? Like camouflage? I do like the pink though. That’s a much more pleasing color. You should be pink more often. It suits you.”

Rosalyn not knowing how to process what he had just said picked up Mowgli and attempted to hide her face in his tummy. The baby crowed and chortled at this and she felt a bit better not having to look directly at her boss who had just, sorta, maybe, hit on her?… nononono she was clearly just misinterpreting- she felt Ozainu gently lift Mowgli up out of her arms. She startled a little but he was holding the baby properly.

Ozainu was peering at Mowgli as if trying to see through the baby. He gently turned Mowgli this way and that. She wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for, but finally he seemed satisfied and looked back down at her. “See the chil- M-Mowgli is pinkish but for some reason the color looks better on you. Why do you think that is?” he said and he reached down a huge hand and brushed a finger against her cheek. His eyes were half lidded and way too close to hers. 

Rosalyn squeaked and almost fell over. What had gotten into her boss? He was acting very VERY weird.

Ozainu plopped mowgli back into her lap, the baby laughing and flapping their little arms excitedly. Ozainu laid down next to her, his head pillowed on the picnic basket. He reached vaguely for the lemonade, his tongue sticking out of his mouth and his eyes unfocused, and when he missed the jug Rosalyn carefully poured him another glass and handed it to him gingerly. He seemed content to sip the lemonade and stare up at one of the glass walls of the greenhouse, looking out into the depths of Alternia’s oceans.

Rosalyn slowly uncurled and tentatively looked up as well, admiring a school of odd brightly colored fish that swam by. 

Ozainu pointed at a teardrop shaped fish that swam by. “That one.” He squinted “T..that fish is called ‘empress’s lameen...lemon...leneomen…” He chittered to himself “LAMENT! EMPRESS’S LAMENT!” Ozainu’s arm flopped back down to the dirt. “That’s the...that’s the gods damned fish…”

Rosalyn paused, a cup of lemonade to her lips. It all suddenly clicked into place. 

He was… He was DRUNK!

“B-because the shape.” Ozainu closed one eye, his tongue peeking out of his mouth as his hands formed the vague shape of a teardrop with his forefinger and thumb “It looks, it looks like a teardrop...”

Rosalyn sniffed her cup of lemonade.her brows furrowed. How did he- Where did he-

Ozainu seemed unsteady, swaying a bit back and forth where he was, his eyes going completely unfocused before rolling back into his head.

Rosalyn yelped as a very heavy weight suddenly plopped down in her lap, spilling her own cup of pink lemonade.

“Mmphfhhhsk.” Ozainu told her eloquently from where he was face down in her lap. “Fhhhhh.”

Rosalyn looked down at the troll her eyes wide with horror, her hands hovered over his head, unsure of what to do. Rosalyn of course had known about drunk people in theory, seeing it usually on movies and TV. The sorts of shows that featured what her mother had called “Licentious behavior” such as drinking, smoking and implied premarital sex, the sort of show that her mother would have a conniption about if she caught her daughter watching.

“Mister Kalala?” She asked gently, peering worriedly down at him with her shoulders hunched as if the troll was about to explode. 

His only reply was a vague murmur muffled by her skirt.

Rosalyn looked to either side of her, they were the only two on the whole ship (Well except Mowgli but he was a baby and unable to help) and even just Ozainu’s head was so heavy that Rosalyn could hardly move. “You! I-” Rosalyn put her hands to her hips “M-Mister Kalala! You stop being drunk this instant!”

Ozainu simply kept snoring lightly. Mowgli giggled and kicked his feet.

In her defense, Rosalyn never had actually been around a drunk person, much less a drunk Ozainu. How did he even get drunk? She didn’t bring a drop of alcohol and-

Rosalyn’s lips thinned. She thought back to Jukilo and the five or so slushies he had at the mall, the way he had staggered back to his car...How could she have forgotten? She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, Ozainu’s muffled snoring from her lap. Of course. Rosalyn thought to herself. She glared down at the pitcher of spilled pink lemonade that caused the whole mess.

Mowgli burbled happily and clapped his little pudgy hands, obviously amused with the situation. 

Rosalyn sighed. 

She rolled up the sleeves of her dress and braced herself against Ozainu’s shoulder, pushing as hard as she could, bracing her feet against the dirt and wiggling vaguely out from underneath him. Her grip slipped however and Ozainu was sent face-first into the dirt.

Rosalyn squeaked, afraid he would smother himself. She put herself in between him and the tree, placing both feet on his shoulder and bracing her back against the tree, pushing as hard as she could. She barely managed to roll him onto his side, losing her grip and falling between Ozainu and the tree with a startled yelp. Rosalyn went to Ozainu’s side, sighing out a breath of relief to see he was still breathing. She dusted a bit of dirt from Ozainu’s cheek before standing up.

Rosalyn was struck by two things.

One, was that Ozainu was actually fun to be around when he forgot to be a stuck up aloof prick. And two-

He was an absolute lightweight.

Rosalyn put a hand to her mouth and snickered. She had no room to judge of course because she had never even touched a drop of alcohol but-

Rosalyn looked over to the small pitcher of now spilled lemonade, the cups they had been using and then back to the comparatively massive troll she had been luncheoning with, snoring drunkenly where he laid in the dirt.

It was just all to contrary to the image she had built of him in her mind. He was thousands of years old, ancient, a general of conquest, political powerhouse and-

Ozainu snorted in his sleep where he was still lying on the dirt floor of the greenhouse, his lashes fluttering delicately across a cheek.

-an absolute dork.

Rosalyn snorted amused at the sleepy troll in front of her before restraining herself. She tapped her lips with thought. He was a heavy dork though, and she couldn’t just leave him here in the dirt… The nearest couch was in a media room flanking the east side of the greenhouse.

Rosalyn turned to Mowgli, her brows furrowed with concern “But how to get him there?”

Mowgli only burbled and put his foot in his mouth.

Keeping an eye on Ozainu and Mowgli, Rosalyn searched the greenhouse. Walking through the brush she found a large piece of sheet metal half buried in the dirt, judging by the large hole in the greenhouse wall, hidden behind a grove of purple barked trees, she supposed it was a piece of plating that had fallen and never been fixed. 

Going through another overgrown thicket she found a large wheel-less cart, stacked with purple logs, an Ozainu-sized axe leaning against the side. Rosalyn eyed the axe, nearly as tall as herself, before dragging it away from the cart. The cart, if it could be called that, was a platform of sorts, low to the ground, on the other end of the cart there was a large handle, rising upwards to be level with where Ozainu’s hands would have been if he was standing next to the thing. Rosalyn stood on her tippy toes and managed to flip a switch on the carthandle. A pale blue light came to light underneath the cart, the platform rising a couple of inches off of the ground as light pulsated underneath it.

Rosalyn hummed “That will be useful.”

Rosalyn pushed the logs off the cart and guided it back to where Ozainu was still fast asleep on the ground, Mowgli watching him from his baby carrier in fascination. It must have been hard, Rosalyn mused as she brought the cart back to where they had been sitting, for Ozainu to maintain this whole place by himself. Rosalyn quietly resolved to try and help out on a couple of projects.

Rosalyn guided the cart to lay alongside Ozainu. She then dragged the sheet metal between Ozainu and the cart, resting one side of the metal onto the edge of the cart, the other edge next to Ozainu. Rosalyn braced both hands against Ozainu’s shoulders, pushing with all her might until Ozainu rolled from his side onto his back, right onto the sheet metal.

Rosalyn put her hands to her hips, trying to catch her breath. “Ok…” She combed her hair away from her face “Now all we have to do is find something to raise the other side of the metal….”

Rosalyn’s first plan involved wedging a very large stick under the lip of the metal, then bracing it against a nearby boulder in order to make a lever. Rosalyn had jumped on the other end of the stick, intending to lift the metal and slide Ozainu onto the cart. However her weight… wasn’t nearly enough. She sat on her end of the stick, high in the air, looking down at the completely unmoved Ozainu.

Rosalyn sighed. She glared down at the unconscious troll. “Why are you so MASSIVE?”

The unconscious Ozainu deigned to reply as he was, as of current, still unconscious.

Rosalyn yelped as the stick slid out from underneath the metal plate, sending Rosalyn tumbling to the ground.

Mowgli giggled, wiggling his little feet and clapping his hands, extremely amused. “BUH BUH!”

Rosalyn glared half-heartedly at the baby “Neither of you are any help whatsoever.”

Rosalyn laid in the dirt, staring at the ceiling of the greenhouse as she considered her options. She sat up, looking at the whole thing critically. “If I’m not heavy enough to move it... “ She glanced around the greenhouse “Maybe something else is strong enough to pull it….”

Rosalyn stood up, brushing dirt from her dress and went off to find a rope.

One end of the rope was threaded through one of the rivets in the steel plating that was currently housing an unconscious Ozainu, the other end of the rope stretched to the far side of the greenhouse, attached to the bottom of one of the mechanized window coverings, currently closed at the moment.

Rosalyn looked over at Mowgli from where she was standing on a box in order to reach the controls for the window coverings. “Wish me luck Mowgli!”

Mowgli burbled and wiggled up and down in his seat. Rosalyn took that as a good sign and pressed the button.

The window covering began to rise, pulling the rope with it. Rosalyn cheered as the metal sheet was lifted, rolling the unconscious Ozainu unto the cart like a snoring ragdoll. 

The metal plate continued to drag across the floor of the greenhouse. “Ok that’s enough.” Rosalyn pressed the button to pause it but the mechanism continued, apparently unwilling to stop until it had completed its function. The metal plate inched closer to Ozainu’s half-eaten shark, the metal hooking onto the beast and dragging it with it.

Rosalyn grimaced, pressing the button more insistently to try and stop it “No wait-”

The shark and metal plate were dragged across the window of the greenhouse, the metal screeching as it scratched against the glass and the shark leaving smears of bright greenish blood  and offal across the glass. The metal sheet became wedged in the metal tract of the window covering, the mechanism sputtering and whirring as it tried to keep pulling the window covering up but being stopped by the metal.

“WU-HURR WU-HURR WU-HURR” The mechanism protested, screeching as the metal plate held tight, the dead shark dangling from the metal sheet, their tongues lolling from their mouth limply.

Rosalyn’s lips were pressed into a hard line as she looked up at the mess. The dead masticated shark pressed up against the glass and steadily leaking blood down the glass, the metal screeching across the glass every time the mechanism tried to pull it. “That…” She grimaced and looked away “Th-that’s going to have to be fixed later….”

Rosalyn strapped on her baby pouch, picking up Mowgli and settling him in. She pushed the woodcart with Ozainu onto it out of the greenhouse, trying desperately to ignore the sound of the window covering.

Rosalyn took him to the media center on the east side. She took Ozainu to the nearest couch, raised the height of the woodcart and gently tilted one side until the unconscious troll slid onto the padded surface.

Rosalyn brushed a bit of dirt from his face, tugging the wrinkles out of his shirt in an effort to make him look slightly less disheveled. She a baby blanket from Mowgli’s pack, a neon blue affair with cartoon fish and octopuses and gently laid it across the alien, barely covering any of him at all.

She sighed and pulled up a chair. She took Mowgli out of his pouch, unclipping it from her waist and shoulders. “Let’s get another blanket and some toys for you.” She told the infant who reached towards her face and cooed.

She looked down at Ozainu “All we can really do now is make sure he doesn’t choke on his own vomit.”   
  


 

Ozainu stood on the soil of Carthon, the latest conquest of the Alternian empire, the soil in which he was destined to prove his mark as a general of the Alternian fleet. For the glory of the empress the Condescension, long may she reign.

It was supposed to be easy. How could it have gone so wrong? He had planned every detail, how had it gone so wrong?

He could hear screaming in the air, barked orders, the sound of plasma rifles being fired. The smell of burning flesh, of blood, of death, thick in the dry Carthinian air.

Laquda was across from him, the gash across her eye leaking violet down her already blood soaked uniform. She was afraid. Laquda wasn’t supposed to be afraid she-

“COMMANDER!” Laquda grit her teeth, shaking her head panicked “THEY’RE GONE!” The front of her uniform was splattered with troll and alien blood alike “THE REBELS OVERWHELMED OUR POSITION! IT WAS A SLAUGHTER! A SLAUGHTER!” She looked at him pleadingly with her one remaining eye “WHAT DO WE DO?”

Ozainu didn’t know what to do. All of their lives depended on him and he didn’t know what to do- how could he not know what to do? Trolls were dying and he didn’t know what to d-

No no no this was going wrong! It was all going so wrong! How could they- they were just aliens he-

Mosart’s brown eyes were filled with tears, reflecting the fire from the planet around them. It had all gone so wrong. Their plan had gone so wrong, so terribly, terribly wrong. He stepped back from the body of a green blooded troll with horror, blood pooling by his feet. “Ozainu!” He looked desperately at him “What do we do?”

Ozainu didn’t know what to do.

Fat tears rolled down Mosart’s face, stifling his voice in an effort not to make a scene. He looked up at Ozainu, pain written across his face. “W-what have we done?” 

Mozart was on the ground now his hair a white tangle around his wrinkled face.

Ozainu held him in his arms, on his knees as he desperately tried to hold Mosart together, keep him whole, keep him sane, keep him- keep him- keep him- “No! No Mosart! You can’t leave me I-”

Mosart didn’t look at him, his eyes staring off into space as he continued to shrivel like a leaf “What have we done? What have we done? What have we done?” He murmured, over and over again, continuing until he fell to dust in Ozainu’s arms, blowing away in the breeze.

“No!” Ozainu desperately tried to gather the dust but it kept slipping from his fingers “NO! MOSART!”

Small feet padded through the orange Carthinian sand, leaving flaming footprints in their wake.

Ozainu looked up at her.

Rosalyn looked down at him sadly. Her clothes billowing gracefully in the hot Carthinian wind, standing small and delicate in the middle of the charred battlefield.

“I’ll destroy you, you know…”  she whispered sadly to him as she would her arms around his neck, his skin broke out into painful burnt blisters where she touched him, but he didn’t pull away, frozen in place as she burned through his flesh.

Her skin turned pitch black and split apart into jagged pieces, molten lava showing underneath. Her eyes glowed a bright fiery orange, the heat of her skin palpable as her face moved towards his. Sighing out a painfully hot breath, steam coming off of her. They were only centimeters apart and-

“It’s all going to hurt much worse this time you know”  Rosalyn whispered against his lips. Dry heat burning through his lungs “It’s no use… Loving something you can’t keep…”

One of her delicate hands moved up to cup his cheek burning the skin on contact. Ozainu could feel a scream begin to build, unable to release it though as it became trapped in his throat. It hurt. It hurt so damn much and-

Rosalyn looked down at him pityingly, running her delicate and gentle hand across his cheek sadly, the touch burning through his skin with a hiss as it went. “It’s always going to hurt. Every time. That’s why we do it.” She closed her eyes, leaning in and-

She kissed him. 

His head exploded with light...

He felt her burn through him, her hand on his face moved down to his chest burning a hole into his flesh, deeper and deeper, to his ribcage and to his blood-pusher and-    
  


Ozainu bolted awake covered in sweat, a yell echoing in his ears. Or was it just in his head?

“Ozainu?”

Ozainu looked around wildly for the source of the voice, his heart pumping his claws extended-

Rosalyn’s worried face peeked over her knitting. Mowgli was on the floor between them, sitting on a blanket and shaking some multicolored and jangly toy.

Ozainu took a moment to center himself, focusing on the softness of the couch beneath him,  _ not the dry grit of Carthon’s soil _ , he took a deep breath, the air of his hive cool and slightly damp,  _ not the blistering dry heat of Carthon _ .

“Ozainu…” Rosalyn put down the knitting, peering up at him with her big brown eyes “Are you alright?”

Ozainu breathed heavily, her eyes were brown. The sclera was a creepy bleached white but that wasn't what he was seeing. He was seeing into the past and all he wanted was for the owner of those big brown eyes to hold him and stroke his hair and tell him the nightmare was over and … he looked away. She wasn’t Mozart. 

“Fine.” He insisted his voice ragged. He focused on his breathing, putting both feet on the floor, leaning over to keep himself from vomiting, running his hands through his sweaty tightly curled hair “What was IN that?”

Rosalyn sighed, her lips thinning “Sugar, unfortunately.”

Ozainu whipped his head up to glare at her “AND WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?”

Mowgli burst out crying between them.

Rosalyn stared back at him, not breaking eye contact as she picked up Mowgli and set him in her lap, bouncing him slightly to soothe him. “Sugar is just a flavoring for humans, I didn’t know it would get you drunk.”

Ozainu was still sweaty and off kilter from the dream. “Or maybe you were trying to POISON ME.” he spat out petulantly.

Rosalyn stared back at him eyebrows raised. “Except that I drank more than you, remember?”

Ozainu was the first to break eye contact. He put his head back in his hands and tried to keep the contents of his stomach where they were.

Rosalyn stood up from her seat, brushing off some imaginary dirt from her skirt and holding Mowgli close. “I only wanted to make sure you didn’t choke on your own vomit. Now that I see you won’t, I’ll be off now…”

Ozainu’s head was pounding,a full blown migraine threatening to bloom under his horns. He vaguely remembered being in the greenhouse “Wait I was … we were in the greenhouse how did you-”

“Wood cart.” Rosalyn informed him pertly, stepping towards the door. She looked back at him and shrugged slightly, a strange sort of sadness shining in her eyes. “I couldn’t just leave you in the dirt.”

Ozainu noticed the cart by the door.

“I…” Ozainu sighed and looked away. A pit of uneasy shame forming in his stomach “...thank you.”

Rosalyn smiled at him. “You’re welcome.” she stifled a rueful laugh, thinking about the current state of the greenhouse. “Though there is a certain problem that uh…”

Ozainu looked up at her “What problem?”

Rosalyn touched him gently on the shoulder. Ozainu tried his best not to be comforted by it and failed spectacularly. Rosalyn shrugged and smiled gently “It can wait until morning, or er- day.”

Rosalyn gave him one last small smile as she left the room “Good day Mister Kalala.”

Ozainu watched her leave, his eyes following the gentle curve of her shoulders, when he was sure she was out of earshot he whispered back “...good day Miss Rosalyn…” Her name heavy on his lips and even heavier in his heart.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Comment what you thought! I always ALWAYS love hearing from you guys! Cookie is making some art for this chapter but isn't quite done yet since she is a very busy cookie, but I wanted to make sure this came out on homestuck day! So please check back to look at her art she is amazing and I want to make sure people appreciate what she does here.
> 
> Anywho!
> 
> It's allllll coming together....


	12. In which a general of the Alternian fleet teaches a baby several things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get some backstory about how Feferi defeated the old Empress and how she has been doing as the new Empress. We learn a little more about how Ozainu fits into the court and where Feferi is politically in her own regime.
> 
> Also Ozainu tries his hands at parenting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! You asked for Ozainu and Mowgli interactions WELL YOU GOT THEM! Along with some more secrets and political intrigue!

Empress Feferi felt just a bit bad about inviting Ozainu to the human’s base on false pretenses. Well not exactly false pretenses, Feferi reminded herself, biting her bottom lip as she scrolled through the security camera footage that General Harley had given her, Ozainu walking down the halls of the military base, his human trotting behind him to keep up, holding his adopted son, they really DID need more recruits on Earth but…

That wasn’t the only thing she wanted out of his visit.

It wasn’t easy overthrowing a brutal dictator of a sprawling and violet regime, it was even more difficult to try and tame the Alternian empire, remake it into something less horrible and violent. 

Feferi had taken on the Condescension when she was still a teenager. It is a fate that all fuschia bloods have to undertake when they come of age. There can only be one adult fuchsia blood, and that fuchsia blood will rule the Alternian empire. 

She hadn’t expected to win.

Seeing the Condescension in front of her in the battle arena though, she had seen past the old cruel woman and instead saw all the people she had hurt, the thousands of innocent people, Alternians and conquered species alike, slaughtered all for the so-called “progress” of the empire.

She imagined her friends. Her friends were her same age, all about to be conscripted, made soldiers in a never ending war spreading across the galaxy like a disease. Karkat was a mutant, they would cull him on the spot. Aradia’s intelligence would be ignored, used only as a pawn for the regime. War would break Tavros’s heart. Sollux would be forcibly put into the engine of a ship, tentacles slowly absorbing him into the mainframe until there was nothing left. Nepeta was too spirited, too strong-willed, and someday there would be a highblood Equius couldn’t protect her from. Kanaya would serve a lifetime of drudgery in the brooding caverns, barely ever seeing the surface of the planet. Terezi was blind, she was a good competent troll, but what if a higher up saw her as a deficiency anyways? Would they turn Equius into a tool for the regime? What horrible thing would Gamzee become when the church got their hands on him? There was only so much being a violet blood could excuse, eventually her Eridan would be chewed up by the Empress’s war machine as well.

Something in her had…

Snapped.

Afterwards Feferi’s hands were shaking, the front of her dress speckled with fuschia blood, the Empress in front of her gasping as blood trickled down her jaw, pooling in her mouth and in the hollow of her throat, Feferi’s trident through her ribcage.

Feferi had stood up then, her legs like jelly as she loomed over The Condescension, the old woman gasping her last breaths, her limbs jerking like a dying fish. Hundreds of violet bloods were staring at her in awe from where they sat in the arena, their hands frozen where they had been pouring drinks and perusing trays of orderves, not expecting this small gentle troll to- 

Feferi rose to her feet, her sandals dragging through the sand, breathing heavily, wiping the Empress’s blood from where it had sprayed across her face.

Feferi Peixes was the new Empress of the Alternian Empire.

 

Oddly enough, that had been the easy part.

The entire system, Feferi mused, was geared towards cruelty. Even the manner of succession, forcing fuschia bloods to fight for the throne was predisposed for violence, the act symbolic for one bloody regime being toppled by an even bloodier regime. The throne wanted blood, the system demanded a leader who would kill for it.

Feferi didn’t want that, she never wanted that.

However that was easier said than done.

One of Feferi’s first naive orders as Empress was to disband the church of the dark messiahs. She did it in part to keep Gamzee from being forced to join upon conscription, and because she thought it would stop the problem. No more ritualistic killings of trolls if there was no church to kill for, right? 

Instead it seemed she had swatted a hornet’s nest. While some subjuggulators simply retired, most scattered like cockroaches. Instead of a centralized hub of evil, Feferi was now contending with speckled murders along the countryside, corpses being found in tiny homemade churches under bridges, in grain depositories, caves, or out in the open deep in the forests.

Not only that but one of the columns of the system of violent order that the previous empress had put in place had been knocked off kilter. All rulers must coalesce support of their rule in order to have any sort of meaning behind their orders, any sort of teeth to their bite. The Condescension had chosen the church of the messiahs. The church got the blood and bodies for their rituals, metered out and allotted in a way controlled by the government, and The Condescension received brutal fear-inducing enforcement to her rule in return, using them to control the masses through fear.

The murders through the countryside had been a mark against Feferi in the eyes of her people, it had meant that she lost control of the church. It meant that the Church was no longer supporting her, it meant that whatever system that had been in place to protect “Good and obedient” trolls from them no longer existed. 

If she couldn’t control her people, if she couldn’t protect her people, then what kind of Empress was she?

The answer it seemed some of her people decided, was a weak one.

Assassination attempts began to become frequent, most of the attempted murderers being from former members of the church or young violet bloods who were loyal to the old regime. Feferi was lucky that she had a loyal team of guards, those who believed in her vision for a kinder Alternia, or else Feferi’s rule would have been a very short one.

She worked to amass her own supporters. She told her people her vision and her people responded. Her message resonated with the lowbloods, having been downtrodden for so long and wanting so badly to have the peace that she offered.

It was difficult though, Feferi had to play a dangerous game in running the empire. She had to build alternate systems before abolishing the old ones, like placing railroad tracks in front of an oncoming train, like building support beams for a roof while knocking others down. 

Lines of production that were supplemented with slave labor had to find alternate means of manufacture. Culling drones were decommissioned and replaced with a flesh and blood troll police force with a system of accountability. Culling was even abolished!

Though that had uh… mixed results.

Feferi knew that stopping the culling would lead to a rise in population. But she had hoped that that switching the system of every troll being forced to supply genetic material during breeding season, to a system where genetic material  _ may _ be  _ voluntarily donated _ , would slow down the production of grubs enough that the surplus could be absorbed, perhaps by the periphery colonies.

Feferi’s plan had failed.

Spectacularly.

Despite a lower net total of grubs, without culling the new generation surpassed the available lusii by far. Feferi suspected that the Jade bloods had given her inaccurate figures on just how many grubs were culled each season, massaging the numbers to make it seem less horrible and throwing off Feferi’s calculus. 

That combined with the sick, damaged or elderly trolls that were also not being culled, stretched the already tenuous system to it’s breaking point.

Commander Ozainu had come to her throne room, a delegation of violet, cobalts and even some Jade bloods behind him.

“Your highness with all due respect.” Ozainu had looked up at where she sat on the throne “Our ONLY option is to institute a brown and down culling policy.”

Feferi looked down to the arm rest of her throne, fingering a jewel there, deep in thought. How many worlds had been conquered and mined for the gold in this thrown? For the gems that were embedded into every wall of the palace?

Feferi had refused to wear any of the gold jewelry the old empress had left. Feferi knew where the pearls she wore came from at least, they came from the oysters in her garden, grown and harvested on Alternia, the oysters still alive where they were nestled in bunches outside of the palace. The old gold was bloody, pearls were the fruit of Alternia’s oceans, made from life.

“So that’s it then?” Feferi had sent him a scathing look. “Your plan is simply to kill thousands?” Her lips were pressed into a hard line. “HAVEN’T I BEEN CLEAR?”

Some of the trolls that had gathered behind Ozainu flinched away. They were Feferi’s seniors by far, the young empress only having just reached maturity, and she knew that half of them were simply humoring her while waiting for another fuchsia blood to hatch. They falsely equated kindness to weakness and saw Feferi as a temporary Empress, doomed the moment a new fuschia matured.

Even so, they knew what happened when Empresses got angry, and despite Feferi’s explicit wishes for peace, they all were waiting for the other shoe to drop. As if one day Feferi would lose her interest on compassion and renew the mass slaughterings.

Ozainu didn’t flinch. He stared back at her, his face impassive. “I’m afraid that there are no other viable alternatives.” He sighed “If you won’t kill the weak or the sick, then we have to stop as many new trolls from being introduced. The red and brown castes are the most populous while having the lowest return.”

Feferi. “Lowest return.” She had meant it as a sarcastic comment on his computer like calculous when it came down to the worth of lives, but apparently Ozainu took it as a question.

“They don’t live long enough.” Ozainu explained “They take up too many resources for their limited time of use to the empire.”

Feferi shook her head, looking down at him sadly “Despite how logical your argument seems...I can’t do that...I simply can’t do that.” Feferi frowned “Life is measured by more than how long someone can be “useful” or not. They are all destined to be individuals, the worth of their lives will be determined with how they spend it.” she smiled “Sometimes the most worthwhile things are...short-lived.”

Feferi took a book from besides her throne “Take Mosart Marida!” Feferi held up the book “One of the most important thinkers and revolutionaries of our time! What would our culture be without the brown blood who-”

“Where did you get that?” Ozainu interrupted her.

Feferi blinked, not expecting the outburst from the usually stone faced general. She looked up at Ozainu, her brows pinched with indignation. She-

She didn’t expect the look on Ozainu’s face. He looked stricken, staring at the cover of the book in her hands, the leather soft with age against her fingers, the name “Mosart Marida” imprinted boldly into the leather. There was something in his eyes Feferi couldn’t quite place, it was like being on a star-ship and looking at the stars, knowing that Alternia and everyone you ever loved was galaxies away, untouchable.

Feferi stuttered “I...As a fuchsia I was allowed into the royal archives to take one piece of knowledge.” Feferi looked down at the book, running a finger across the title.

‘The New Alternia, by Mosart Marida.’

“It’s a way to try and prepare upcoming fuschias for their battle with the ruling empress, you’re supposed to take military guides, weaponry or tactical manuals but…”

Feferi thumbed the book fondly. “Instead I took this.” She clutched the book tighter “I read the words of Mosart Marida and he showed me an alternate vision of Alternia, a kinder Alternia, an Alternia that can be a guiding light in the cosmos rather than a hateful reign of terror.”

Feferi clutched the book to her chest. “I believe in his vision.” She raised her chin “I will make it come to fruition.”

Ozainu’s teeth were clenched, his eyes still firmly glued to the book.

Feferi looked at the group in her throne room “So no, we will not be doing any culling of any kind. We WILL find a humane way to deal with this problem.”

“Now.” Feferi whispered, her voice as soft as silk “All of you get the fuck out of my throne room.”

 

Later that night one of Feferi’s guards, an older-looking cobalt with scars running down his face, Kirudi Kradak, quietly told her that she should probably not mention Mosart Marida around Ozainu again.

Feferi’s brows had furrowed “What? Why?”

The commander just shook his head “It’s from before even my time…” He looked around the room before he continued, as if someone could be listening. He leaned in “Apparently…” the old troll had whispered “Ozainu had once been a true believer of Mosart’s ideas as well.”

Feferi had been surprised at that. Ozainu Kalala had a well-earned reputation as one of Alternia’s most calculated, brutal, and cold-blooded of the Empress’s generals. He was known as the “Eye snatcher” or the “Eye taker”. Using calculated violence to get what he wanted. The solutions that he always put forward were quick, calculated, and bloody.

Though… Feferi mused, he never seemed to take delight in killing as some of the generals she had when she first took over, ones that were left over from the previous regime. Though what could have happened to Ozainu to turn him from a believer of Mosart’s words, the writer of the troll renaissance, and proponent for troll and alien rights, to the brutalist he was today? 

She asked her commander as much and he sighed “I don’t know your eminence…” He shook his head “But now that you’ve mentioned Mosart, he’s bound to be angry, you better make sure Laquda Lareek is busy. She’s his most loyal of war dogs. I doubt that he would try anything so soon but… It’s best to be careful.”

Feferi hadn’t recognized the name so she looked up Laquda Lareek’s file in curiosity. Reading through the long list on her tablet she quietly agreed with her general, swearing under her breath as she put in a request for Laquda’s ship to be helping search the far space for new uninhabited planets that could be colonized. It was part of Feferi’s plan to help relieve the pressure on the home planet, so it was a viable request...the mission making Laquda Lareek a galaxy or so away from Feferi was just a…. side benefit. Though could you blame her? The troll was  _ terrifying. _

The fleet sent out for uninhabited planets found some viable uninhabited options, and those were utilized immediately but their most important, and most unexpected discover of all was-

Earth.

Beautiful, beautiful Earth. Earth was Feferi’s dream, the salvation of her people. 

Feferi had sent out her commander and loyal guard to Earth, the cobalt having had experience with infiltration teams before on planets the Condescension had planned to conquer. He came back in a near panic, telling Feferi stories about a planet of people descended from apes, with blunt teeth who could eat poison and gave birth to their young.

The commander had been completely grossed out, pleading Feferi not to contact these people but she had held on to some important facts during his diatribe about the people.

They were lusii.

They were ALL lusii!

Feferi contacted the planet, and from the moment she had stepped off the ramp of her shift and onto the green grass, she had been absolutely enthralled. 

They were like small, soft, blunted trolls, the less dangerous version of her people Feferi had always dreamed about. The human leaders were all quick to point out that their system wasn’t perfect but-

They had systems in place to care for the sick and the elderly! They had systems to care for the orphaned! They had a structured criminal justice system, burdens of proof that had to be met in order to convict! Voting! 

It may not have been perfect, but it was miles above the systems that relied solely on culling that Alternia had for so many thousands of sweeps.

Feferi had many long conversations with Congresswoman Brynn Stephens those first couple of days. The pink haired human pointing out the flaws in the human system, working with Feferi to help her restructure her planet, while learning from the strengths and weaknesses of the human system.

It had been embarrassing to accept a medical envoy from the humans, but General Harley had assured her that his granddaughter “Jane” was one of the best medical professionals that they had and that she would be indispensable in helping to build the new Alternian medical system. The humans built what they called an “Embassy” on Alternia where they helped build hospitals and consulted on infrastructure, and in return Feferi built and “Embassy” on Earth where they helped the humans with building new more advanced ships and other technology.

It was still hectic and frustratingly slow going, but with the human’s help Feferi could see The New Alternia, the same beautiful vision Mosart showed her in his book. The New Alternia would be a place of kindness, compassion, innovation.

Feferi believed in the vision, she had to, even on the hard days, when things were difficult she held onto the vision.

She couldn’t stop thinking of Ozainu though, how he had been a believer as well before he turned so… cold and cruel. He had been quiet since she dismissed him from her throne room…

Quiet wasn’t good. 

Quiet meant scheming.

Feferi enquired about him using her sources, and was surprised to learn that the troll had gone to Earth and adopted a human. She had blinked, asking her spy to repeat themselves to make sure she heard that one right, but the green blood had simply given her a picture, Ozainu standing on Earth, a Teal blood with a baby carrier besides him, a human woman following the both of them. Oh! Look at that! He also had brought an adult human back with him to Alternia! How exciting!

Feferi had always pretended to be shocked whenever her generals brought her reports of the “licentious behavior” that trolls were engaging with humans, but secretly….. Feferi had been delighted. Alternia’s prolonged contact with humans were a way that Feferi could quietly judge how well trolls could interact with people who weren’t trolls, and well, what higher degree of respect could a troll have than for a quadrant member?

It was symbolic, she mused. Trolls and humans coming together and building a new life with one another.

And now Ozainu had a human! Two humans! Feferi hoped that deep down in his blood pusher he was still a believer of Mosart’s ideas. His coalition of traditionalists had been a steady thorn in her side when it came to realizing “The New Alternia”

But if she could get him on her side...

That’s why Feferi had sent him to the facility, to see Ozainu and his human for herself. She wound through the footage General Harley had given her, it wouldn’t have been obvious to any humans watching the pair, but Feferi saw they way he stood with her, staying in her space in a protective sort of way.

Feferi hummed, winding a piece of hair between her fingers. It wasn’t conclusive proof, but she isn’t quite sure what she expected on that front, it’s not like someone of Ozainu’s status would get caught on a security camera making out in the hallway or anything like that.

Feferi zoomed in on the little human, looking up at Ozainu with big brown eyes, holding the infant human to her chest.

Feferi smiled. She ran her fingers over the book on her desk that had served as her faithful companion and guiding light for all these years, her claws dipping into the indented leather, tracing the name ‘Mosart Marida’ over and over again.

If anyone was going to remind Ozainu of these words, Feferi thought…

It will be her.

  
  
  


Ozainu Kalala, Rosalyn came to realize, was like a cat.

After the lemonade incident, Rosalyn had thought that her dynamic between her and Ozainu had gone back to normal. They woke up, had an awkward greeting between the two of them and had eaten breakfast together but-

Whatever room Rosalyn moved to, it just so happened that Ozainu found some reason or another to come into the room as well. She had thought it was a coincidence the first couple of times but...

She had been in the library, on a couch reading a book, and Ozainu had also come into the room, giving her a quick nod as acknowledgement before taking out a book as well and setting up on the far side of the library. Afterwards Rosalyn had been in the garden, tending her plants and harvesting the radishes that had grown in, when Ozainu came in from the other direction to return the wood cart from the day before. 

Ozainu had given her a look when he saw the shark that was now dangling from the window covering, Rosalyn giving him a shy smile and a shrug in return, he simply sighed and went to work fixing it.

Rosalyn had helped him clean up afterwards, and then went to go make lunch. Ozainu followed a couple of minutes afterwards, ignoring her as he made his own meal in the kitchen.

Rosalyn watched him slice a thin sort of fish on the counter-top, firmly not looking at her. She chewed through a bite of salad, made with greens from her garden, eyeing the troll curiously. Mowgli was next to her licking pureed banana from his fingers. Rosalyn recognized the fish.

“Empress’s lament.” Rosalyn commented.

Ozainu’s brows furrowed. He looked over his shoulder at her. “What is?”

Rosalyn pointed with her fork “The fish.”

Ozainu looked down at the fish on the cutting board as if the little tear-drop shaped fish had just materialized there. “So it is…” He resumed chopping “How did you know that?”

Rosalyn took another bite of salad, chewing through a radish. “You told me.”

Rosalyn didn’t see his face, but she saw his arm tense and his chopping rhythm stutter. “...did I?”

Rosalyn let out a breath. There was something he wanted, something he wanted to do or say but whatever it was it seemed he was dead set on not acknowledging it.

She regarded him thoughtfully, watching the tense line of his back as he chopped the fish carefully. She knew that whatever had been happening today wasn’t a coincidence, Ozainu almost seemed to time himself during the day, moving into the room she occupied only after a set amount of time had passed, and moving to a place in the room a calculated distance away from her. He seemed to want to always be by her and-

Rosalyn paused.

Maybe not by her?...She looked over at Mowgli, the little chubby baby smiling when he saw her look at him, his hand almost entirely in his mouth. He wiggled in his highchair and giggled.

Rosalyn considered that Mowgli was Ozainu’s son, but he had absolutely no idea how to be a father. That was the entire reason she was here. Maybe he wanted to interact, but had no idea how?

“You know…” Rosalyn began carefully, watching his body language where the troll was turned away from her. “I’ve been thinking…”

Ozainu hummed. There was something very tense about his shoulders, the precise way he cut the fish.

“Maybe you should spend some time to get to know Mowgli?” Rosalyn proffered.

Ozainu turned to look at her, his nose crinkled and his brows furrowed, apparently not expecting this. “What?” He waved his knife about vaguely “What do you mean get to know them?” He grimaced “They can’t even TALK.”

Rosalyn snorted. “Well yes that’s where you come in.”

Ozainu looked over at her. He turned and leaned against the countertop, his arms crossed. He looked unsure. “What do you mean?”

Rosalyn shrugged “Well that’s how humans learn to talk. They listen to what other people tell them.”

Ozainu seemed to consider this for a moment. “...Well I suppose one area that human children have over troll children is early speech development…”

Rosalyn nodded. “He is listening, and at this age he understands tone and is beginning to vaguely parse what word means what.” Rosalyn turned to Mowgli “Mowgli!” she cooed “Yum yum banana!”

Mowgli wiggled in his seat and opened his mouth happily, letting Rosalyn give him a spoonful of banana.

Rosalyn shrugged “See he’s learning what sounds mean what, soon he will be trying to say words himself.”

Ozainu, hunkered down next to where Mowgli was sitting in his highchair, looking at the infant like it was a bomb about to explode. He looked from Mowgli, to Rosalyn and then back to Mowgli.

Rosalyn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She wiped off Mowgli’s hands and mouth. “Go on.” She urged Ozainu “Pick him up.”

Ozainu grimaced but did as he was told, gingerly picking Mowgli up from his highchair, one hand nearly large enough to wrap around the child completely.

“Support his bottom.” Rosalyn guided. He was so tall it felt like giving Mowgli up to a giraffe. “Yes, there you go, hold him like that.”

Ozainu held the child away from him, looking down at the tiny thing that looked up at him with big blue eyes. He looked at Rosalyn, apprehensiveness written all over his face. “...what now?”

Rosalyn shrugged “Talk to him. Tell him something.”

Ozainu turned to the baby. “Hello.” He greeted the infant as if he were an important diplomat. 

“Buh.” Mowgli stated in return, a little bit of spit escaping his mouth.

Ozainu nodded, pretending to consider the baby’s persuasive argument. “Yes, ‘buh’, indeed.” He gave the baby a serious look. “You may not know this yet, but I feel I should be the one to tell you this.”

“Grrglu!” Mowgli gurgled, wiggling a bit in Ozainu’s hands.

“As fascinating as your argument is, let me continue.” Ozainu told the baby. “Mowgli….”

Mowgli looked up at Ozainu expectantly.

Rosalyn looked up at Ozainu expectantly.

“I am your father.” Ozainu finished, seeming contented with himself.

Rosalyn stifled a snort, covering her mouth to keep her laugh from bubbling out.

Mowgli giggled, wiggling about from side-to-side. “GURgaROo!”

“And you are a baby.” Ozainu explained.

Mowgli looked up at Ozainu, with a bit of imagination one could think that his expression was outright astonishment at this new development “GOH!”

Ozainu nodded sagely. “Yes I know, I thought that would shock you.” He wiggled Mowgli slightly in his hands “And as a baby, I have been informed that you will need to be instructed on how to speak.”

Rosalyn bit her lip to keep a high-pitched giggle from escaping.

“We will begin immediately.” Ozainu told the baby, like a general sharing war plans.

Ozainu brought the infant to the island in the kitchen. Rosalyn watched as he stooped low, holding out the baby.

“Chair.” Ozainu stated calmly “This is a chair.” He gave the baby a serious look. Mowgli looking back at him with big eyes. “Chair.” Ozainu repeated.

Rosalyn couldn’t help the laugh that escaped from between her fingers.

Ozainu looked affronted, peering back at Rosalyn to give her a glare. “What?”

Rosalyn shook her head, unable to wipe the smile from her face. “Nothing! Nothing!”

Ozainu put a hand on his hip “No.” Ozainu insisted, looking down at Rosalyn with such indignation that it only wanted to make her laugh more. “You laughed. What is so funny?”

Rosalyn put a hand to her mouth delicately “Well, it was the way you said it so… matter of factly.”

Ozainu looked down at her haughtily “Well I’m not going to be doing any of your bird coo banana yum yum nonsense.”

Rosalyn only smiled wide “Oh I wouldn’t expect you to.”

“How do you expect the child to learn any sort of proper grammar going all ‘yum yum banana’ at the boy?”

Rosalyn snorted. “Please stop saying ‘yum yum banana’ I don’t know how much more I can take.”

A slight violet blush graced Ozainu’s cheeks for a half moment. “Yes well.” He turned away “I’m off to teach the child some more words.”

Rosalyn smiled. “You do that.”   
  
  


 

Rosalyn followed the pair of them as Ozainu walked the halls of the ship, occasionally pausing to point something out to the child, such as “door”, “Window”, “Fish”, “lightswitch”, and “Depressurization chamber”. He even once paused at Rosalyn, lifting the child until they were face to face and pointing at her. “Rosalyn.” He told the baby.

It became a daily occurrence, Ozainu walking along the halls and pointing out vocabulary to the infant, or even just chatting with him.

“The grub crisis is an ongoing issue of course.” Ozainu told the baby.

“Gurg.” Mowgli replied sagely.

“Yes yes, nasty situation.” Ozainu agreed “But the empress won’t listen to reason, so we’re doing the best we can. There is an initiative to relieve the population burden by off loading more trolls onto colonies, or building new colonies, but the empress refuses to take an already inhabited planet.”

“Brup.”

“Yes I know. I know. There are never enough habitable planets that are not already inhabited, though we could renew the terraforming initiative, it had always just been easier to take a planet with an already established atmosphere rather than make one from scratch.” Ozainu shrugged "... The terraforming initiative was unfortunately... ill-fated." Ozainu shrugged "Though I suppose we have just about every other section of space away from it. May the gods help to avert a repeat performance of such an abysmal failure."    
  
  


 

Another day Rosalyn had supplied a book and told Ozainu to read it to Mowgli.

Ozainu scoffed down at the paperback book and the bright illustrations the book contained. “To give a mouse a cookie?” Ozainu huffed “You should never be giving squeakbeasts cookies. That’s ridiculous.”

Ozainu sat on the couch of one of the media centers, little Mowgli in his lap as Ozainu thumbed through the tiny book. “Ah…” Ozainu quirked his eyebrows “The mouse’s demands become more and more ridiculous as time goes on, I see.” He looked down at Mowgli, the tiny baby looking up at him. “See this is why you should never capitulate to the demands of the lower classes.”   
  
  


 

Another time Rosalyn was doing laundry, Mowgli was sitting up on a blanket, shaking some little jangly toy. When she turned back around Ozainu was sitting on the floor next to Mowgli, the translator app open on his tablet.

“Ozainu?” Rosalyn looked over at him, even sitting down the troll still managed to be taller than her “What are you doing?”

“It occurred to me...” Ozainu frowned down at his translator app, a general encountering a problem on the battlefield “That perhaps the child HAS been speaking, but it simply hasn’t been English.”

Rosalyn snorted “What are you talking about?”

Ozainu tapped something out on the translator app and hummed “Well his documentation does suggest a Germanic ancestry, perhaps the child is speaking German.”

Rosalyn gave him a flat look “That’s… not how that works. Besides, he was born in Florida. What did he say that you’re so fixated on?”

“Flurgl.” Ozainu answered back, still intent on his translator app.

Rosalyn’s eyebrow quirked “Flurgl?”

“Flurgl.” Ozainu answered back, dead serious. Something pinged on the translator app. “Ah!” Ozainu brightened “Colloquial Delnurian, the word means ‘tax evasion’...”

Rosalyn went back to her laundry, rolling her eyes. “Your son isn’t talking about tax evasion.”

“He could be!” Ozainu answered petulantly back, still sitting on the floor next to Mowgli.

“He isn’t!” Rosalyn called back, taking the laundry basket out of the room.   
  
  


 

Ozainu was in Mowgli’s nursery. The child on his lap with a book out in front of the both of them. Rosalyn had chosen “The rainbow fish” because of the colorful fish on the cover, hoping perhaps to also appeal to Ozainu’s love of the aquatic, but the troll only seemed more and more horrified as the story went on.

Ozainu grimaced “No! It tore out another one of their own scales! That’s horrific! I don’t think the writers of this book knew how much that would hurt!”

“Bluh!” Mowgli answered back, slapping a tiny pudgey hand to the book.

Rosalyn sighed. Maybe next time she’ll try red fish, blue fish.

Ozainu huffed “I absolutely agree. Don’t go about tearing off pieces of yourself and handing them out to people. That is disgusting.” Ozainu turned the page. “Ah! It tore another one out! Stop it!”

Rosalyn had paused where she had been putting away laundry, looking at the blank grey wall of the nursery.

Ozainu noticed her staring at the wall, he looked at her over the book. “What is it?”

“Its bland.” Rosalyn remarked, rubbing a knuckle against her lips in thought. “It really is just TOO bland.”

Ozainu looked at the wall. He righted Mowgli where the little child was beginning to fall over in his lap. “That just so happens to be the entire point. It is perfect for a growing juvenile.”

Rosalyn turned to him incredulously. “Why on Earth would you WANT a nursery to be bland?”

Ozainu rolled his eyes. “You know the phrase ’why on Earth?’ really isn’t applicable when not on Earth, secondly-” He motioned towards the wall “The child will decorate it themselves, they will apply as they see fit.”

Rosalyn looked towards Mowgli sitting in Ozainu’s lap, looking down at the book rapturously. The child accidentally hit himself in the face with his own hand, and after two more tries managed to cram his entire fist into his mouth as they watched.

Rosalyn gave Ozainu a look “I don’t think he will be coordinated enough to decorate this space for a good long while.”

Ozainu stilled as he looked down at the wiggling baby in his lap. It had dawned on him some time ago that raising a human child would be different from how he himself had been raised but every time he learned something new about human babies he felt just that little bit more out of his depth. 

Rosalyn waved her hand vaguely at the wall. “Babies need color...and shapes in order to develop properly.”

Ozainu considered this. That actually made some sort of sense. He looked over at Rosalyn. “Allow me to take care of it.”

After making sure that Ozainu was alright with looking after the baby for a moment, making him promise to call her if he needed anything, he simply rolled his eyes and waved her away. Rosalyn left to start another load of laundry and go through the garden. She used the hem of her dress to gather some spring greens as well as some zucchini and butternut squash. 

She unloaded her vegetables onto the kitchen counter, there always seemed to be more zucchini then she knew what to do with. If she cooked it long enough would it be soft enough for Mowgli? Mowgli had been doing better with solid foods lately, moving onto cheerios and other small snacks, she should bake some soft zucchini bread and see how he does with it.

Before Rosalyn knew it she was pulling her zucchini bread out of the oven, inhaling the smell happily before it hit her.

Just how long has she left Ozainu with Mowgli?

Rosalyn dumped the zucchini bread onto the counter and started running towards the nursery. She had never actually left Mowgli with Ozainu for this long, would he know what to do if Mowgli choked, or if he started crying, or if he needed a diaper change or-

Rosalyn turned the corner of the hallway, running to the room and-

Ozainu had a little tub of purple paint, squinting in concentration as he painted precisely on the wall. Mowgli also had a paintbrush in his hands, though it seemed that he had gotten more paint on his face and hands than anything else.

Rosalyn sighed out a breath of relief. She walked into the room, kneeling down towards Mowgli and pulling out a wipe to clean the paint off his face.

“Don’t worry.” Ozainu looked back at her “The paint is non toxic.”

Rosalyn looked down at Mowgli, the baby laughed and kicked his little feet, scooting around on his bum across the floor. “Yes well.” Rosalyn looked back at him “He still shouldn’t be trying to eat it.”

Ozainu hummed, continuing to paint carefully on the wall.

Rosalyn took a moment to look at the walls. Hundreds of shapes were painted all across the room, squares, circles, zig-zagged lines. 

Rosalyn looked up at the shapes. “Ozainu?” She asked “Why are y-”

Ozainu looked up from his work, motioning up at the odd mural. “I have provided color, as well as shapes.” He nodded up at his work, then looked over to Rosalyn, giving her a dry look “You’re welcome.”

Rosalyn looked up at the mural and shrugged “...Well it’s not exactly what I had in mind.”

Ozainu finished a rhombus, looking back at the neat lines proudly “Oh, and what did you have in mind?”

Rosalyn shrugged “More than one color for one thing.”

Ozainu leaned back to give her a look. She noticed his cheek had some paint on it. “He is my son, I am a violet blood, his color will be violet.”

Rosalyn rolled her eyes “Yes well, who knows what his favorite color will be.”

Ozainu’s nose wrinkled “His favorite color?”

Rosalyn shrugged “Well yes, that what human children always ask each other first.”

“Oh.” Ozainu shook his head “I suppose on further thought the question ‘What is your favorite color’ is benign when it comes to humans, but with trolls though…” He turned to grimace at her “It sounds a bit… fetishistic…”

Rosalyn blinked. “oh….OH…”

Ozainu nodded “Yeah.”

Rosalyn grimaced “... I see that now.” She bit her lip “Then what do troll children ask each other?”

Ozainu shrugged “You would ask what your favorite shape was.”

Rosalyn hummed. That sort of made sense. She looked over at Ozainu curiously “then what is your favorite shape?”

Ozainu motioned up at the painting of an arrow. “The arrow. It is concise, it has energy, direction and ambition.” He looked over at her “And what is your favorite shape?”

Rosalyn looked over at the options Ozainu had painted across the wall. “hmmm...I would have to say… The circle.” 

Ozainu scoffed “Why a circle?”

Rosalyn shrugged “They seem… soft… round… playful like they could bounce like a rubber ball.” She looked at Ozainu “You know...They seem friendly.”

Ozainu gave her a blank look. “It’s a shape. It’s not _ friendly _ .”

Rosalyn put her hands to her hips. “Oh? This coming from the guy who JUST told me that arrows had ambition?”

Ozainu opened his mouth to argue. He paused for a moment. He closed his mouth. “....fair point.” He gave Rosalyn a look, seeming to debate himself for a moment before he asked his question. “So… What is your… favorite color?”

“Yellow.” Rosalyn answered back.

Ozainu grimaced, turning back to continue painting his shapes.

“Oh stop that!” Rosalyn huffed “Get your mind out of the gutter!”

Ozainu shook his head “The question still seems fetishistic.”

Rosalyn looked out the window of the nursery. “Well...yellow is the color of the sun...it feels warm and spring-like. It’s a happy color.”

Ozainu scoffed “I’ve never met a yellow blood that was happy.”

Rosalyn pouted and muttered “Yes well maybe that was just because you were there.” under her breath.

Ozainu’s head whipped around. Oops he had heard that. Rosalyn froze in place looking at him in owlish shock and Ozainu looking back at her with a matching expression.

A smile fought valiantly with thousands of years of natural pride and cynicism, but in the end it won and made its way across Ozainu’s face. “...probably.”

The both of them couldn’t help but laugh at that. Rosalyn trying to stifle her laughter with a hand and Ozainu smiling with his lips pressed together firmly, his shoulders quaking with laughter.

Rosalyn sat next to him on the floor of the nursery. “Do you mind if I paint with you?”

Ozainu bowed slightly. “By all means.”

She took one of his paint brushes and the both of them spent a quiet evening painting shapes on a nursery room wall.

  
  


“The Empress’s Lament.” Ozainu pointed out one of the fish swimming by the home’s portholes for Mowgli, directing the child’s attention to a teardrop shaped flit of silver, reflecting a pale pink in the sparse moonlight that filtered down through the water. 

Rosalyn paused where she had been knitting in the observation deck, making a little violet fish patterned sweater for Mowgli. She watched Ozainu stand by the window, Mowgli in his arms as the both of them looked out into the endless Alternian sea.

Mowgli slapped a tiny baby hand against the glass, watching the fish curiously “Ah! Ah!”

Ozainu watched the school of fish swim by. “There’s a story about them.” Ozainu told the child quietly “Long ago when Alternia was new, before Trolls knew the stars or even all pieces of our own planet…”

Rosalyn put down her knitting, enjoying the sound of Ozainu’s voice rumbling through the fairy tale.

“The Empress fell in love with a land-dweller.” Ozainu looked out into the dark ocean, the submarine was moving deeper, dots of bioluminescent algae floating by the window like stars in the endless reaches of space. “Every day the Empress would come up from the sea to see them, and every day the land-dweller was waiting for her at the shore. They were kind and noble and the Empress loved them very deeply. ”

Mowgli settled back against Ozainu’s chest, growing sleepy as he listened to the deep rumble of Ozainu’s voice.

“And the land-dweller loved her back. More than anything…” Ozainu whispered, something in his eyes dying before his face fell. “But the land-dweller did what land-dwellers do, and they died... leaving the first Empress heartbroken on the shore.”

Rosalyn frowned slightly.

“The Empress wept at the shore.” Ozainu told Mowgli “Begging the spirit of the ocean to bring them back to her. Her tears fell into the ocean, and the spirit of the ocean answered her.”

Mowgli was nearly asleep now, his tiny lids at half mast as the baby laid against Ozainu’s chest, listening to the rumble of his voice.

“The pain you feel, the sadness and the grief, the ocean said…. is because you knew a love so strong that it could rend you so.” Ozainu sighed, rocking Mowgli back and forth “Have courage, raise your head and rejoice that you knew them at all, rather than despair so at their leaving.” 

Mowgli closed his eyes with a sigh, falling gently asleep.

“The ocean then turned her tears into fish and said, These fish are the memories of your love, and your love shall never leave you, for they will swim with you for the rest of your life.”

Rosalyn didn’t know when she started crying, astonished to find a teardrop fall to the little sweater in her hands, wetting one of the little knitted fish for a moment. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.

Ozainu handed the sleeping Mowgli back to Rosalyn. His face impassive.

Rosalyn cradled the little sleepy baby in her arms, rocking Mowgli back and forth. “That was a lovely story.” She whispered to Ozainu.

Ozainu paused, looking down at her and Mowgli, giving her a small unconvincing smile and a shrug before shaking his head “It’s just a story” he whispered, looking away from Rosalyn.

Ozainu paused at the doorway, his back to them, looking almost shyly over a shoulder. “I hope he learned some good vocabulary today.” he spoke quietly.

Rosalyn huffed out a laugh, wiping another tear with the hem of the half finished sweater. She gave him a watery smile. “I’m sure he did.”

Ozainu nodded, giving Rosalyn an awkward parting wave, and with that Ozainu left the observation deck….

leaving Rosalyn to look out at the sea, Mowgli in her arms as the bio luminescent algae gently lighted the room.

  
  
  


“You know the story you told last night?” Rosalyn asked the next day after breakfast, Ozainu sitting next to Mowgli’s high chair as he sipped his morning tea. Rosalyn was at the kitchen sink, looking out into the sea as she washed that morning’s dishes. “About the Empress’s loved one turning into fish?”

Ozainu nodded.

“I hope my mother became a bird.” Rosalyn looked dreamily out into the blue water. “I think she would’ve liked that…” Rosalyn whispered, watching the last light of the Alternian day float through the water “...finally being free and fly away after so many years with him.”

Ozainu didn’t answer her, didn't need to ask which 'him' Rosalyn had been referring to, having had met Rosalyn's father. However, when he went to put his cup in the sink he very deliberately let the back of his arm touch her’s, staying that way for a moment, a quiet and reassuring presence.

Rosalyn smiled, pretending not to notice the kind gesture. That was something she was beginning to learn was not to point out when Ozainu did something kind, it only made him flustered and deny it. The same way she was grateful for him never mentioning how she flinched away sometimes when she dropped a cup or said an opinion around Ozainu, and the shadow of her father made her think for a moment that she would be hit or scolded or worse.

“Thank you.” She whispered, her voice choked with emotion. She cleared her throat before she could continue. “For putting your cup in the sink.”

Ozainu leaned a bit farther into the touch for only half a moment before pulling slowly away, going back to his seat next to Mowgli, reading his daily briefing on his tablet as if nothing had happened.   
  


 

 

“So is abduction supposed to be romantic for your species?”

Rosalyn turned back to glare at Ozainu. They were in one of the media rooms, Rosalyn was watching The Phantom of the Opera and Ozainu was SUPPOSEDLY reading a book. 

Familiarity was coming easily between them now, a quiet sort of comfortableness between them that Rosalyn was enjoying. They both seemed to gravitate towards one another, craving one another’s presence even if they did nothing but exist in the same room together. 

“Ozainu!” Rosalyn hissed back “You’re talking during one of the best songs!” Rosalyn wondered if this is what being in a family was supposed to be like, grateful for the other person being there, while simultaneously being exasperated at them. “I’ll have you know that this is an Earth classic of the ages!”

Ozainu arched an eyebrow at the screen, his book open on his lap. “Look at her wandering about with some pervert in a mask and a cloak. All he does is just mope about in the basement. Why would anyone find this appealing?”

Rosalyn glared at him, her little button nose wrinkled with indignation. “Ozainu! Stop!”

The expression on her face made Ozainu stifle a snort before his attention was pulled back to the human ridiculousness of the movie. Ozainu leaned forward in his seat, squinting at the screen “Is that a boat? Where did they get a boat?”

Rosalyn threw up her hands angrily. “There! You ruined the song! I’ll have to rewind and watch it again!”

Mowgli threw a toy truck. “Odg!”

The truck hit Ozainu’s chair. The troll rolled his eye and picked up the little toy, handing it to the baby. “Come on now, I know you also don’t like the Phantom of the Opera but there is no sense in being rude about it.”

“Hey!” Rosalyn glared back at Ozainu.

Ozainu smiled cheekily back, a wry twist if the lips that was for him, a full blown grin.  

“ODG!” Mowgli tried again, his tiny brows furrowed, a look of concentration of his face.

Rosalyn was about to argue that Ozainu didn’t know if Mowgli liked the phantom of the Opera or not, but the look on Mowgli’s face gave her pause. She turned back towards Mowgli, studying the child. “...Wait I think he’s trying something.”

“You just don’t want to argue because you know I’m right.” Ozainu told her haughtily.

Rosalyn rolled her eyes, waving him away. “No really! I think Mowgli is trying to say something!”

Ozainu looked down at the baby. “Oh?” He put his chin on his hand boredly “Let’s see how far he gets.”

Mowgli looked up at Ozainu. He pointed a chubby baby finger up at the troll. “OH-DAY!”

Rosalyn smiled “Ozainu I think he’s trying to-”

“Ohdaynu!” Mowgli pointed more insistently.

Rosalyn laughed, putting her hands to her cheeks “Ozainu! That was his first word!”

Ozainu gave her a look. “What was?”

“Ohdaynu.” Mowgli giggled, looking up at Ozainu. “Ohdaynu!”

Rosalyn looked up at Ozainu, her smile turning soft. “Ozainu...he’s saying your name.”

Ozainu’s eyes widened at that. “I-He-What?”

Rosalyn nodded ecstatically “That’s right!” She looked down at Mowgli fondly, then up at Ozainu, tears pricking the corners of her eyes “You’re his first word.”

Ozainu stared down at the child, his shock melting into something warmer.

“Ohdaynu.” Mowgli whispered “Ohdaynu.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy y'all! Please please PLEASE comment if you enjoyed! Or if you have questions or what not! There are some secrets coming together!!! Both in what is said and what...isn't said ;3
> 
> Anywho I hope you laughed! I hope you had feelings! and I hope you've gotten another couple pieces of the puzzle!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [In Which A Young Human Lusus Tends To A Grub](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15450264) by [8ConfusedSpider8](https://archiveofourown.org/users/8ConfusedSpider8/pseuds/8ConfusedSpider8)




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